(Photo: KUTV FILE) 
 
 An apparently simple email about a holiday potluck at a state office in Utah went off the rails Friday when it was accidentally sent to approximately 25,000 state employees. One early respondent seemed to anticipate the coming storm of emails by replying to all, “braces self for receiving thousands of emails from people hitting ‘reply all’ to say they got added by mistake.” 
 
 Then the ‘reply-all’ responses began. Getty Images Justin Sullivan/Staff 
 
 "So this is happening right now. It’s Replyall-gate 2018. A photo posted by state spokesperson Joe Dougherty showed dozens of emails sent over the course of just a few minutes around 9:30 a.m. 
 
 Dougherty posted around 11:15 a.m. to say the email chain seemed to have run its course. Many begged fellow respondents to stop hitting reply-all, while others resorted to all-caps demands to “STOP THE MADNESS.” 
 
 Premium content for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. Adventures in state government. #ReplyAll Actually don’t reply all," wrote Joe Dougherty, a Public Information Officer for -- perhaps ironically -- the Utah Division of Emergency Management. Utah Department of Technology Services employees took to social media to urge the tens of thousands of respondents to stop replying to the email chain that deluged state employees, contractors and businesses across Utah. — Amanda Rock (@amanda__reads) December 7, 2018 
 
 Even Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox commented on the fiasco on Twitter, calling it “an emergency.” 
 
 “This is real and it’s an emergency,” Cox wrote. Started out as a potluck and $5 white elephant gift exchange in one department and someone accidentally cc’d every state employee. “I fear this will never end,” Lt.
– "STOP THE MADNESS!!!!," "dear lord," and "I want to die" were just a few of the responses to what was meant to be a routine email Friday about a seasonal potluck party in a Utah state office, per the Miami Herald. What caused the holiday hubbub: The email meant for one department was accidentally sent to more than 25,000 employees throughout the state, leading to what Newsweek calls "a cascade of curt, angry, and confused responses" when recipients started hitting "reply all" in their return correspondence, KUTV reports. Unable to simply ignore the mass email, hordes of workers, both irritated and amused, tried to get off the "reply all" chain by … replying to all with that request, which Newsweek notes "only deepened the communication quicksand." "It's Replyall-gate 2018. Adventures in state government," one worker tweeted as it was happening, while another worried the messages wouldn't taper off: "I fear this will never end." In addition to the snark and outrage, some replies were genuine queries about what to bring to the potluck, as well as to the white-elephant gift exchange also set to take place. A Utah communications professional offers some advice to those who want to avoid the same "reply all" fiasco happening when they have their own email to send out. "Prevention is key: send large group emails to yourself w/ bcc to other recipients, and hope somebody doesn't 'loop' others in," he tweeted. Neither the person who sent the email, nor the department, had been IDed by EOD Friday.