Be Savvy: Use Proper Email Etiquette
These guidelines ABSOLUTELY apply to ALL of us who send e-mail. 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 safely and courteously? ?Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it??
Every time you forward an e-mail, you forward information about the people who got the message before you—namely, their names and e-mail addresses.? As the message gets 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 or her computer.?..
Or someone can take all those addresses and sell them to a spammer, or send junk mail to them in the hope that people will go to their site and they will make five cents for each hit. That’s right—all of that inconvenience for a nickel!? How can we stop it?
Here are several easy to proper email etiquette:
1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all the addresses that appear in the body of the message
That’s right: DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace over them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the “Forward” button first to have full editing capabilities against the headers and body of the message. If you don’t click on “Forward” first, you won’t be able to edit the message.?
2. Always use the Bcc: (blind carbon copy) field to list the e-mail addresses.
When you send or forward an e-mail to more than a few people, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. When you send to Bcc:, the “To:” field in the message your recipients receive will either be blank or will say “Undisclosed Recipients.”?This way, your recipients’ e-mail addresses will remain confidential.?If you don’t see the Bcc: option, click on where it says “To:” and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose Bcc:. That’s it. It’s that easy.
3. ALWAYS hit “Forward” from the actual e-mail you are reading.
Ever get an e-mail where you had 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 him or her from having to drill through many layers of e-mails just to see what you sent.?
4. Remove “FW:” from the subject line.
You can rename the subject if you wish, or correct the spelling.?
5. DO NOT put your e-mail address on any petition
Have you ever received an e-mail petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and 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 e-mail addresses.?
If you want to support the cause, send a personal message to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than as part of a laundry list of names and e-mail addresses on a petition.?
(And don’t believe the ones that say that the e-mail is being traced—it just isn’t so!)
Here are some examples of e-mail you should delete without forwarding:?
1. The one that says something like, “Send this e-mail to 10 people and you’ll see something great run across your screen.” Sometimes they’ll just tease you by saying, “Something really cute will happen.” Hint: IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!! We’re still seeing some of the same e-mails we waited on 10 years ago.?
2. Don’t let the bad luck ones (chain letters) scare me either. They get trashed.
3. Before you forward an Amber Alert or a Virus Alert, or any of the other e-mail warnings floating around nowadays, check it out before you forward it. Most of them are junk mail that’s been circling the net for YEARS!?Almost anything questionable you receive in an e-mail can be checked at www.snopes.com <https://www.snopes.com/> .
It’s really easy to find out if the warning is legitimate or not. If it’s not, please don’t pass it on!