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[anthroid]

Candidates, you don't send an unprovoked email, but you certainly ought to respond briefly to an email saying the SC wants to set up a phone interview.  If someone contacts you, respond.  Just don't send unsolicited emails--those are the desperate kind.  But you really ought to respond to an email announcing that your candidacy is advancing!  That's totally cool!

[ucprof]

I got a job by sending an unsolicited email to the department.  Something along the lines of - I have several interviews already scheduled and wanted to make sure you had my letters of recommendation.  Turns out they did not get the letters - we had them faxed over, and I got a call for an interview within a week.  Yes I knew someone on the faculty and no I was not desperate.  But mail sometimes gets lost, even email.  So if it is one of your top choices (which, roughly, this one was) then it is good to make sure they at least have your application materials and are reading them. 

[carebearstare]

I think general email decorum is not to reply unless you've been asked a question. So that is the rule I've always followed. (And one reason why, when I was single, I always made sure my emails to people I was dating contained questions.)