From TNPC issue #4.08...

TNPC Primer - Email Basics Part 2

by T.J. Lee
April 19, 2001

I thank the many readers who have written to me about Part 1 of this article series (TNPC #4.07). It would seem I've touched on a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of many of you.

In Part 1 the use of To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields was covered and a number of you agreed the world would be a better place if the Bcc: field was used more often when sending a message out to a group of people to keep everyone in the list's address private. I suggested that when sending a message of this type you put your own address in the To: field and several of you pointed out that most email clients let you send a message with a blank To: field as long as there's an email address in the Cc: or Bcc: field. That is correct but I have found that messages that have a blank To: field can throw new users and that the message might be mistaken for spam and summarily deleted. So I put my name in the To: field so the recipient will see what is, hopefully, a familiar address and not reach for the Delete key.

As an aside, TNPCer Larry L. points out that the Bcc: field is not displayed by default in Outlook and Outlook Express. Go to the View menu to display the Bcc: field in these email clients.

Another way email addresses are inadvertently shared among a group of people is through the "include original message text" option that most email clients not only support, but have switched on as the default.

This feature is what dumps the text of the message you received into your reply. And therein lies the rub.

Let's take an email message I received last week by virtue of my being included in a mailing list that my sisters-in-law use from time to time to keep the family in touch with one another. Sister One sends a message and includes a funny story she got from someone at her office. Sister Two comments and includes what she felt was a funnier story that she got from someone at her work. An argument ensues and this pulls Sister Three into the fray. Right away this breaches email etiquette wherein you should be mindful about who exactly you are sending your messages to. Hitting the "Reply to All" button is not necessarily your only choice. Especially when you go from a general conversation to a flame war. And, not that I'm picking on my sisters-in-law, but some of us prefer NOT to get a copy of every funny story/joke/list/top ten/etc. that's floating around the Internet.

Anyway, every message in this email exchange included every previous message. It doesn't take long to get to the point where a message with a one-line response is literally 40 pages long when the entire message is printed out.

So first, beware of the "Reply to All" button. Second, you don't always communicate better by including the entire historic thread in a reply. In fact, it's not always necessary to include the entire message you are replying to even if it's only a single message. Consider deleting all but the pertinent portion of the original message that would lend context to your reply.

Then there's the issue of keeping email addresses private. This is especially acute when you forward a message (which again defaults to include original message text as you would expect). As you have probably guessed I get an inordinate amount of jokes and, er, other supposedly humorous posts forwarded to me from my wife's siblings. When you forward something to someone you are sending them a copy of the message that you received. Often these types of messages were forwarded by someone that was forwarded by someone that was forwarded by someone and on and on.

Not only is the original message sent, but the header information for every stop the message has made along the way, from user to user, and all the email addresses are included. The last "funny joke" that "you've just got to read" that I received had 72 email addresses scattered down through the chain of forwarded headers. It's a good bet that most of these addresses will wind up on a spam list somewhere if they keep floating around the Internet.

Therefore, be mindful of all that you forward when you send an email message onward into the ether and be doubly aware of "text build-up" when you reply to a message. Oh, and remember that the "Reply to All" button is not always the best choice.

You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com

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