Sending email to groups of Gabriola people? Please read this.
There are people on Gabriola who have messages for all of us. They want to tell us about upcoming Gabriola events, Gabriola issues that need action, and whatnot. They often send email to all the Gabriola people in their address books – all at once, in one message sent to everybody. Maybe you’re one of them.
There’s a massive privacy problem here.
When you put all your Gabriola contacts in the to field or the cc field and then send that message, guess what? All recipients can see all of the other recipients’ names and email addresses. So that bulk email you sent? If you did put everybody in the to field or in the cc field, you’ve just blown everybody’s privacy. Many of us don’t want our names and addresses broadcast to all the other recipients on the list.
There’s a better way.
If you must send email to a group of people, please do it this way:
In the to field, put only your own email address.- Leave the cc (carbon copy) field blank.
- In the bcc (blind carbon copy) field, put all of your recipients’ addresses.
This way all those people will get your message, but they won’t see the names and email addresses of other recipients.
If you can’t see the bcc field in your email program, you may need to do one simple thing to make it visible. (Like clicking on a button, say.) To find out what that simple thing is, google the name of your email program and the term bcc — you should find everything you need. (See the links below, too.)
One more thing: do all the people you’re writing to want to receive bulk email? I don’t. I want only letters written specifically to me, not stuff somebody decided to blast out to all of Gabriola Island.
If you’ve read all this, thank you so much. If you refrain from adding me to bulk email lists, thank you even more. :-)
Want to send a friend to read this article? Here’s the web address to give your friend: http://gabriolan.ca/email-gabriola/
About bcc:
- bcc definition – about.com
- Blind carbon copy – Wikipedia
- Thanks, no. – thanksno.com
- BCC, please. – bccplease.com
- How does using BCC help reduce spam? – ask-leo.com
- Email etiquette: Use BCC for groups, please – blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq
- Don’t Brush Off Email Privacy – netmanners.com
BCC directions for specific email programs:
Filed in Gabriola Island 2 Comments so far
2 Responses to “Sending email to groups of Gabriola people? Please read this.”
specialk on 23 Jun 2010 at 4:38 pm #
Glad you posted this one Gabriolan! I’ve seen it far too often.
If you are one of those sending out emails to more than one person at a time, and don’t understand what the BCC field is for (or to see it at all)… please take 5-10 minutes to learn about it. While I think everyone should know about the BCC… in my mind, it is even more important that you use it when living in a small community.
To those who get one of those emails with a bunch of people in the TO list, take a minute to send them the link to this article. Or if that is outside your skill set, just tell them they have to take a minute and learn how to BCC.
Gabriolan on 23 Jun 2010 at 9:51 pm #
Thanks, specialk.
In the last year three of the Gabriola organizations I belong to have screwed up in sending email – they put all member email addresses in the “to” field, then sent that letter. While it’s interesting for me to see who all the other members of each group are, I’m not happy about having my email address shared so widely when I didn’t sign up for that kind of exposure. Guess how likely I am to renew my membership in those groups? Not so likely.