What began as a harmless reminder spiraled into a ruthless spamming of every University of Alabama student’s inbox Wednesday morning.

An email from the UA Academic Advisors Association was sent to a student Listserv on Monday, March 2 at 9 a.m. Two days later, a student responded with a simple follow-up.

“I was planning to nominate my advisor by March 8th; however, when I open the application link, it looks like the survey has already expired,” wrote Nahide Gungordu, a masters student in educational psychology. “Could you inform me about this issue?”

But they didn’t realize that their query had notified 40,000 students on campus.

The chain devolved from there, with students hitting “reply all” to preach to others about unsolicited emails. Some acknowledged the irony. Others attributed it to a problem with the “system.” Some were candid in their frustrations.

“Stop f—ing emailing me,” one response read, while another read, “Listen here you nitwits learn how not to reply all.”

By the time of publication, the thread reached 47 responses, which had begun to fill with memes and curt pleas to fellow students. Michael Abraham, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, said he felt the University could prevent blunders like this in the future.

“It’s odd that there would be a list for the entire campus on the server list,” said Michael Abraham, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. “We are a technologically advanced university … There are ways that you don’t have to put all the names on one list.”

The University has not yet responded to a request for comment. CW News writer Andrew Littlejohn contributed to this report.