Community Newsletter: Q&A: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette
- 11/2/07 9:51 AM
BCC
by rllewis - 11/2/07 3:50 PM In reply to: To , Cc or Bcc etiquette by srmclarenIf I am sending an email to a group and there is one person in that group that does not know everyone else in the group I BCC everyone.
email etiquette
by wolfchef - 11/2/07 3:47 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
the answer really is simple....if you don't want the original recipients to get responses from others, ALWAYS USE THE bcc LINE! This goes back to the 'old' days: Carbon Copy (cc) and Blind Carbon Copy (bcc). bccs' were used if recipients were only to respond to sender, as in corporate surveys, not knowing who else was involved, many times for security purposes. Everyone complains about privacy issues on the internet and spam, and then some idiot 'unwittingly' sends your name, email address and possibly phone number into cyberspace to untold millions of people. And THEY worry about the phone company selling their personel information!
Don't shoot the messenger
by bdcurnutt - 11/2/07 3:48 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Over time I've tried to follow the Golden Rule; "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you." I very rarely send "bulk" mail on to anyone else, but one time I contributed to a "myth" message by passing it on and someone else pointed me to Snopes.com and I discovered my error.
They were kind enough not to "Reply all", telling everyone in the CC line what I did (which I left in because most of them knew each other). That's when I realized I had been spared the embarrassment of my mistake. I then replied to them all again and corrected the misinformation and also pointed them to Snopes.com.
I now try to always follow that example and spare their feelings while also being delicate so they don't think I'm "pointing out their ignorance". That way, if it's a friend, they are still my friend. If it's a coworker, I don't sabotage my working relations and possibly my career.
This Answer is from an Email.
by wireless consultant - 11/2/07 3:48 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Pay special attention to #4 please
----------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY
A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures..
Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 10% of us do; 90% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
________________________________________
Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!
________________________________________
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
________________________________________
(1) When you forward an e-mail DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first , you won't be able to edit the message at all.
________________________________________
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses.Always use the BCC : (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your Bcc: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose Bcc: and that's it, it's that easy! When you send to Bcc: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'To:' field of the people who receive it.
________________________________________
(3) Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish, or even fix spelling.
________________________________________
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent. I know if I discover I must open umpteen paper clips or emails, I get frustrated and just delete before I ever get to the one I'm supposed to read!
________________________________________
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more might as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.(Actually, if you think about it, who's actually supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don 't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just isn't so!)
________________________________________
(6) One of the main ones I hate is the one that says that like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven won the lottery??)
Something really cute: http://tubevube.com/user.php
________________________________________
(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them outbefore you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just bout everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes. com/
________________________________________
It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.
So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
________________________________________
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). This information is something that SHOULD be forwarded.
http://wirelessconsultant.net
Posting too many e mails at once
by elbet3 - 11/2/07 3:51 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My pet peeve is the people who sit down at their computer once a day, look at their e mail and then forward everything they receive to other poeple. I hate waking up to 12 e mails from John, 10 e mails from Suzie and 10 more from Joe. Why do they think we are all interested??? Jokes can be fun if kept to a minimum. When I get one it is uaually duplicated a couple of time within a week by other people. Maybe we need to stop having so much fun with e mails and think about what we are sending and to whom. Maybe I'm just being too picky but I like to hear personal things from people not jokes.
re. bulk eMails
by zepper - 11/2/07 3:52 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It is not good etiquette to expose others' email addresses in Forwards or otherwise. The only To: line should have one of the sender's own email addresses; all the rest should be BCCed unless the main recipient is familiar with you, then you can put their name into a To: line and any other recipients are BCCed.
. The original sender should be reminded of the protocol feaux pas. Recipients should follow the protocol, even if the original sender is a noob or nebbish.
. If I'm going to forward something, I cut the substance out of the original and paste into a new message. Then put your recipients addresses in BCC.
.bh.
Email Etiquette
by crudis1 - 11/2/07 3:55 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
When this happens, I only respond back to the person that sent me the "hoax", with proof from "Snopes" or another source.
I believe it is the senders responsiblity to respect the privacy of his contacts and "Blind Copy" everyone, whether they know each other or not....Just common courtesy!!! (and just my opinion!!!)
e-mail etiquette
by Schneemausi - 11/2/07 3:56 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If I get an e-mail with multiple people in the address, I assume its ok to send the answer to ALL of them. That said, if I write back to someone.... I've received this umpteen times or this is ancient then to the sender only. If I don't know any of these people I just answer to the Sender or sometime pick those out that I DO know. Someone I know sends things to like 50 people - horrible - so most of the time I just address my answer to that person only. Within the small circle of people I know very very well, I also assume I can either answer to all or just the sender.
E-mail etiquette
by mattsher - 11/2/07 3:59 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I personally feel that if a sender does not feel it is problem to let all recipients of an e-mail see all other recipients' e-mail adresses, then there is nothing wrong with doing a reply to all. I have tried to gently hint to some of my e-mail cronies that letting others see all recipients'/senders' email addresses is not necessarily a good thing, but to no avail. So, if they don't care then I don't see the problem. Perhaps the people sending e-mail to them should ask them to mask their e-mail addresses, especially when fowarding. I try to be cautious when adressing e-mail, frequently bcc'ing instead of using the to field.
My two cents worth on this topic.
Gail
E-mail etiquette
by tpobrienjr - 11/2/07 4:02 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1. Don't e-mail something you wouldn't say to a person face-to-face.
2. Don't e-mail something you wouldn't want to be made *very* public.
3. Don't expose someone else's e-mail address without his permission.
4. Think about the content before you send an e-mail, especially if it has angry content. Maybe you can tone it down and still get the result you want.
5. Don't use "reply all" without careful consideration of what it means.
6. E-mails that are repeatedly forwarded are a waste of good electrons. Write your own content, or cut-and-paste the parts that are important.
7. Forums and e-mail groups are not the same as person-to-person e-mail. Don't treat them the same.
It takes some thinking to respond intelligently to email
by rglang - 11/2/07 4:03 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
While I hate to resort to platitudes (especially at this plongitude), do unto others as you would have them do unto to you is an excellent place to start when it comes to email.
As someone in a central IT position for my company, I have managed to train most of our users to run things like "email warnings" and the like past me, and it usually takes a minute or so to visit snopes.com and determine the validity of any such mailing. Then I can respond to them with the URL and let them get back to who ever sent the mail their way.
On the other hand, some folks just get one of those "warnings" and blast it out to everyone in their address book. I've got a prepared text that I send back just to the sender that I add to the information from a trusted source (like snopes.com, etc) to let them know that 1) they are cluttering up people's mailboxes; 2) they are spreading inaccurate information that perpetuates the myths and mysticism around the internet, and 3) that they might want to send out another mailing - USING BCC - to let everyone know that they goofed.
It's the difference between being publicly berated for something silly and well-intentioned (however inaccurate it may be) and a "word to the wise" type of approach.
While it is possible to reply to all in such a way as to avoid any appearance of being a know-it-all or avoiding any possible perceived slight or snub, it's simply not worth the time or energy to compose such a message and read and re-read it a few times to make sure that no one could take offense.
The only times people have had a problem with such corrections is when they were written in haste and really did leave the person with the experience of being made wrong and spoken down to. That's not how I would want to be treated if the tables were turned!
I've had the same thing happen to me
by crabitha - 11/2/07 4:04 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First of all, when someone sends a group of people an email that includes your email address that is visible to all the people on the list, that same email often gets forwarded on and on and on and it doesn't take long for your email address (not to mention all the others) to be added to every spammer's list that exists.
Since I have had the same thing happen to me several times that the writer mentioned, I have sent all of the people who send me these unwanted bulk emails very very very polite and very very simple request to remove my name from their bulk email lists. This has never ever worked.
The second thing I tried was sending the factual information about why I want to be removed from their list unless they use BCC and then I explain to them what BCC is. I explain about how spammers get legitimate email addresses when people send email in bulk. At the same time I explained why BCC which means blind carbon copy is better than using CC, etc. That way, I tell them, nobody else sees my email address or anybody else's and that I like privacy. I have sent this request to a cousin at least five times and it has always been ignored. I have been as nice as I can about it but to be honest, it seems to me that the very people who enjoy sending these types of bulk emails that they think you will find fascinating (usually urban legends easily found on the Scopes site), don't even bother reading what you write to them. This is a human behavior that doesn't exist only in email. You know those people.....the ones at the office who chat and chat and then when you try to tell some story or other, their mind is elsewhere and it doesn't take a rocket scientist (or an anthropologist in this case) to see that they have completely tuned you out. These are the people who are only interested in what they themselves have to say and think you should be too. They don't really care what you have to say.
After I have tried politely asking to be taken off of these bulk mailing lists and explained why in the simplest of terms and the politest way more than 5 times, then I realize I'm never going to get their attention unless I do exactly that.....reply to all. If the person puts everybody's email address out there for everyone to see, whether we like it or not, all of us on that list are suddenly and unwantedly propelled into a public forum. I don't want to offend anyone, especially family members but when I see an urban legend sent out that I think is not only stupid but maybe even dangerous, I respond to all and if the original sender gets upset, maybe then they will listen and finally take me off of their bulk CC list. I've been successful with this now and don't miss the person's emails at all.
The bottom line is that there is no easy answer to this problem. I have had one person who actually read my request and has since started using BCC. But this is a person who values their privacy even more than I do. I am going to start emphasizing the "privacy" and "security" issue again with my cousin. If it doesn't work the next time, I'm going to respond to all even though I hate to offend a relative and risk alienating her. I have literally asked her about 6 times now to be taken off of her list and she doesn't reply and she doesn't take me off. I don't know any other way to get through to her than to answer to all the next time she sends me one of these bulk emails.
Off Topic
by khuss66 - 11/2/07 4:08 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My boss is notorious for using reply to all for her off topic questions and topics that are sent to our workgroup i.e.: "enclosed is specific data to project X" her reply to our VP(and everyone else in the work group) OMG, come by my desk to check out my new purse, want to go to lunch."
Seriously, WTH? Why did you just send that to 48 people who didn't need to read that?
As far as the OP is concerned, that is why reply to all exists, to quickly disseminate applicable information to everyone involved in the original message. perhaps the originator would have been more appreciative if he/she was able to correct her/himself, but oh well.
Using multiple TO: or CC: is STUPID!!! Use BCC:
by danrb01 - 11/2/07 4:10 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Often, I'll send this to every address on an email I recieve.
Hi,
I always receive such good emails, but I can never forward them, because by the time I get them there are so many other peoples email addresses on them. I can usually only remove the mailing list of the person who sent it to me. By the time You and I receive these emails the address have become a non-removeable part of "the thing" we wish to send. Scroll to the end of this email to see how you are disclosing (and compromising) all of your friends' email addresses
Items 1 and 2 below, are THE most important items. Especially Item 2. If everyone used Bcc: Blind Carbon Copy, there would never be a visible address list to begin with. I sometimes look at the cc: list, it's interesting to see who your friends are, I could send them a virus or spam - it gives away A LOT of information that is best left out of the public domain.
If you send this to your friends, and they send it to theirs, soon ALL the emails will come through clean.
Regards,
Dan
P.S. I got your email address from an email that was forwarded to me. I also got all the email addresses of everyone that you sent this email to - because you used "TO", or "CC" instead of BCC. This is one of the ways that SPAM lists and VIRUSES are sent out.
Forwarding Emails 4/30/2006 from Don K
This came to me direct from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails.
Please read the short letter below ...
Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are two easy steps:
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. High light them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: columns for adding e-mail address. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
(3) Remove any "FW:" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail your reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.
Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.
So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.
e-mailing etiquette
by nil desperandum - 11/2/07 4:11 PM In reply to: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My ISP has a great spam filter system ... so no problems there. It gets 99% of spam.
With regards to the main question I treat everyone that I recognise with great courtesy.Particularly if they have a comments on my web site.
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