Thursday, June 19, 2003

Email -- To:, Cc:, and Bcc:

I couldn't agree more with this post from Pegasong. When you send an email with several email addresses in the To: or Cc: line, you are making these email addresses available to everyone who receives the message.

  • "To:" is intended to be the place where you put who you're sending the message to.
  • "Cc:" is for others you want to receive a Carbon Copy of the message.
  • "Bcc:", or "Blind Carbon Copy" is for messages in which you do not want recipients to know whom else has received the message.
I know of several occasions in which someone sent out a message to church friends and family. One recipient, a fellow member of the church, clicked "Reply All" and replied to everyone on the list with a message that was only intended for the original sender. Such a message included church jargon, which can offend, alienate, or otherwise confuse others. The other thing to note is that such messages open up several email addresses for someone to send unsolicited email.

So, let's all behave.

1 comment:

#hego!denr@tio said...

i tottaly agree with u , i wanted to start a chain mail informing people about how to use bcc so we don't get so many spams in the end but i have one question : do the people in the bcc see each other? can u elaborate a little bit on how it works?