EMAIL ETIQUETTE
Webkeeper's note: I received the following information about
Email Etiquette and thought it was worthy of posting. I am not
able to attribute it to anyone and have edited it for
readability.
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Every time you forward an email there is information left over
from the people who received the message before you, namely
their valid email addresses as well as real names. As the
messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds. All
it takes is for one person to get a virus which can be then sent
to every e-mail address on that person's computer. In addition,
someone can collect all those addresses and either sell them or
send you their junk mail.
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
1) When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses
that appear anywhere in the message. That's right, DELETE them.
Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them or
whatever it takes to remove them. It only takes a second.
To do this, you must first click the Forward button. Then you
will have full editing capabilities in the body and headers of
the message. If you don't click "Forward" first, you won't be
able to edit the message at all.
2) Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT
use the TO: or CC: fields for adding their addresses. Always use
the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) field for listing email addresses.
This way the people you send to will only see their own email
address. If you don't see your BCC: option click where it says
TO: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and
choose BCC: When you send mail using BCC: your message will
automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the TO: field of
the people who receive it.
3) Remove any FWs that appear 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 email you are
reading. Do you ever get those emails in which you have to open
ten pages to read the one page with any useful information on
it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view,
you eliminate the necessity of their having to open all those
other emails.
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 even your entire address book.
The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands
of names and email addresses.
The completed petition is actually worth money to a spammer
because of the valid names and email addresses contained
therein. If you want to support the petition, that's fine. Just
send your own mail to the intended recipient. Your individual
email will carry more weight as a personal letter rather than a
list of names and email addresses on a petition. And, if you
think about it, just who is responsible for sending the
completed petition to whatever cause it supposedly supports?
6) Don't bother forwarding any emails that say something such
as, "Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great
run across your screen." Or maybe, "You will suffer some
horrible fate if you DON'T forward this to everyone you know!"
Rest assured that none of these things will ever happen.
7) Before you forward an Amber Alert or a virus alert or any of
the other dire warnings which float around all the time, check
them out first. Most of them are nothing more than junk mail or
chain letters which have been circulating on the Net for years.
Any grave "warning" you receive may be easily checked out by
Googling some distinctive short phrase from the email and the
word "hoax". You'll find out on the first page of hits if the
warning is real or not.
CONCLUSION
Remember that many of these "warnings", "alerts" and "petitions"
have actually been started by spammers simply in order to
collect valid email addresses. Guard your privacy and help keep
spam from your mailbox. Please do not blindly forward these dire
warnings or petitions to "everyone you know" without checking
things out first.
Personally, I really don't want any more mail about "cheap
mortgage rates", "important virus alerts" or "improving my
manhood". I know where to get information on those and other
topics if I want to. It's called "Google".
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