The Abc's of Bcc's

Email is an incredibly convenient, easy way to keep in touch and communicate almost instantly with every important, and not so important, person in your life. I'm always excited when someone near and dear to me takes the plunge and gets connected with email but my excitment is tempered a little bit by the knowledge of what's coming - FORWARDS! It's a sure bet that your new emailing friend is going to send you:

• at least one DIRE warning about the harbinger of computer death lurking in the seemingly harmless email that's probably sitting in your Inbox at this very minute just waiting for you to click on it so take their word for it - whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THAT EMAIL!
• one three-hanky sob story that you've read at least a dozen times in the last five years
• at least two "pass this on to at least 12 friends in the next 10 minutes" chain emails
• one or more surveys about thier life that they want for you to fill out, return AND pass on to 10 friends
• and finally, the amazing money making opportunity that Bill Gates (I swear it's true, I saw it on Good Morning America!) and America Online are offering email users if only they'll forward this email to everyone in their address book

Awww...the joys of shiny new toys!
I think it's kind of sweet and a little endearing to get those initial emails because it reminds me of how excited I was when I first started surfing the web. Because I've been there, I'm sympathetic to a large degree. However, one thing that makes me absolutely crazy, and downright angry if they don't learn from their mistakes, is when I get these kinds of emails with my address, along with the addresses of every contact that they have every known in their lives, pasted into the To: line of a mass email.
Be a good Netizen and teach your new email recruits how to use this new tool responsibly by introducing them to the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) function of their email program.
Why use the Bcc? Have you ever wondered why it is that people take the time to make some of the ridiculous emails that people never get tired of forwarding? It's simple really - it's a great way to harvest email addresses that you can then use for Spamming purposes.

The number one reason to use Bcc: it protects the email addresses of the ones you love from ruthless spammers

Another reason to learn how to use the Bcc is to protect yourself from malicious replies! Let's say that you're a faithful voter who just adores the current candidate running for office and in your excitement you email everyone you know with a plea to make sure that they get out to vote for YOUR GUY. Unfortunately, to some of your contacts, your guy is the worst candidate for office since Rod Blagojevich and to teach you a lesson, one of them decides to hit "Reply To All" and tells everyone that you're a complete idiot for putting your faith in such a worthless candidate. HOW EMBARRASSING!

The number two reason to use the Bcc: to protect yourself from embarrassing replies to everyone you know!

So, if you're new to email, take the time to learn how to use your email program before you start sending out mass emails. Who knows, the email address you save, may be your own!