If I plan to use BCC email, do I leave "to" blank?

[brawnypandora0]

I've been using email for ten years but I just started to learn what this BCC and CC is about.

1) Suppose I want to send an email to John, Jack, and Jill. I only want to send one email asking them the same question instead of three separate emails, but I don't want anyone to know that I sent to two other people. Does this mean I leave blank the "TO" box and put their three emails separated by a comma in the "BCC" box?

2) Suppose instead of BCC I put the emails in the CC box. Does this mean that all three of them would know that I sent an email to all three of them?

3) If one or all three of them reply to my email, would they know of the other two people?

[westie457]

I've been using email for ten years but I just started to learn what this BCC and CC is about.

1) Suppose I want to send an email to John, Jack, and Jill. I only want to send one email asking them the same question instead of three separate emails, but I don't want anyone to know that I sent to two other people. Does this mean I leave blank the "TO" box and put their three emails separated by a comma in the "BCC" box?

2) Suppose instead of BCC I put the emails in the CC box. Does this mean that all three of them would know that I sent an email to all three of them?

3) If one or all three of them reply to my email, would they know of the other two people?

1 No. You put one in the 'To' the others in the 'BCC' separated by a comma

2 Yes

3 Depends on what you did with 1 or 2

[brawnypandora0]

1 No. You put one in the 'To' the others in the 'BCC' separated by a comma

2 Yes

3 Depends on what you did with 1 or 2

4) What's the point of CC then? I could just use the TO line?

5) What would happen if you add a person to BOTH the cc and the bcc?

6) Is it possible to add the email addresses of people who aren't recipients?

[brawnypandora0]

1 No. You put one in the 'To' the others in the 'BCC' separated by a comma

2 Yes

3 Depends on what you did with 1 or 2

What do you mean by "one in the 'To' to the others"? Which one of the three people???

[haqking]

The purpose of Cc is same as in an office with hard copies.

You send it an email to one person but also send a copy to others to see what you have sent and to be kept in the loop.

The Bcc is blind so other people get copies but you protect everyones email addresses from being seen by the others.

You could address them all in the To but then they get sent out individually.

using the CC informs everyone who got a copy and shows addresses.

[mcduck]

What do you mean by "one in the 'To' to the others"? Which one of the three people???

put one recipient in the "to" field, and the other two in "cc" or "bcc" fields. You choose who is the recipient of the mail and who just get the copy of the mail.

Also, not all the purpose from these fields comes from any actual difference in behavior, but part of it is in the meaning of the fields. There's a difference between being a recipient of a mail and only being informed that such mail has been sent. For example I might send a mail to a customer, and cc it to a co-worker. The messaging would be considered as conversation between me and the customer, the cc'd persons probably wouldn't join the conversation.

So CC and BCC aren't really tools for sending a mail to multiple recipients, they are for sending a mail to one recipient and sending a copy of it to others. If all the people you wish to send the mail are considered as actual recipients of the e-mail, add them all to the "to" field instead.

(so being cc'd or bcc'd in a mail pretty much tells you that you aren't part of the actual conversation, but should know about what's being discussed.)

[brawnypandora0]

put one recipient in the "to" field, and the other two in "cc" or "bcc" fields. You choose who is the recipient of the mail and who just get the copy of the mail.

Also, not all the purpose from these fields comes from any actual difference in behavior, but part of it is in the meaning of the fields. There's a difference between being a recipient of a mail and only being informed that such mail has been sent. For example I might send a mail to a customer, and cc it to a co-worker. The messaging would be considered as conversation between me and the customer, the cc'd persons probably wouldn't join the conversation.

So CC and BCC aren't really tools for sending a mail to multiple recipients, they are for sending a mail to one recipient and sending a copy of it to others. If all the people you wish to send the mail are considered as actual recipients of the e-mail, add them all to the "to" field instead.

(so being cc'd or bcc'd in a mail pretty much tells you that you aren't part of the actual conversation, but should know about what's being discussed.)

So if I want to send an email to three people by putting their three addresses in the "TO" box and leaving both cc and bcc blank, each recipient won't know that I sent it to two other people? Is that what happens?

[mcduck]

no, if you put them all to the "to" field, they'll all see each others mail addresses.

The only "standard" way of sending a mail to multiple recipients without any of them seeing who else you sent it, and with all considered as the actual recipients of the mail instead of just being informed about it, would be to send each of them a separate mail.

However, you can set yourself as the recipient, and bcc them all. This kind of misses the actual meaning of cc/bcc, but works reasonably well.

(you can't just bcc them all, as there has to be an actual recipient for the email.)

[amjjawad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_copy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Carbon_Copy

[brawnypandora0]

no, if you put them all to the "to" field, they'll all see each others mail addresses.

The only "standard" way of sending a mail to multiple recipients without any of them seeing who else you sent it, and with all considered as the actual recipients of the mail instead of just being informed about it, would be to send each of them a separate mail.

However, you can set yourself as the recipient, and bcc them all. This kind of misses the actual meaning of cc/bcc, but works reasonably well.

(you can't just bcc them all, as there has to be an actual recipient for the email.)

So I'm emailing myself? That seems kind of odd.

What would happen if I put the three people's email into both "To" and "Bcc"?

[haqking]

So I'm emailing myself? That seems kind of odd.

What would happen if I put the three people's email into both "To" and "Bcc"?

like he said, it would miss the point of cc/bcc

if you put them in both to and bcc 3 people would get the same email and see each others addresses and would all be the recipient.

and they would get it as a blind copy and not see the other addresses.

What is it you want to do as it is pretty simple and been around for years.

To: recipient
CC: copy of email to recipient
bcc: copy of mail to recipient without being able to see other copies

[brawnypandora0]

like he said, it would miss the point of cc/bcc

if you put them in both to and bcc 3 people would get the same email and see each others addresses and would all be the recipient.

and they would get it as a blind copy and not see the other addresses.

What is it you want to do as it is pretty simple and been around for years.

To: recipient
CC: copy of email to recipient
bcc: copy of mail to recipient without being able to see other copies

Huh? So if I do that will they see each other's addresses or not?

[haqking]

Huh? So if I do that will they see each other's addresses or not?

LOL

Yes if you put them all in the TO field then yes they can all see each others email addresses, so if you dont want them too then place one address in the TO field and the others in BCC if you want to protect their privacy or yours from whom you sent the email to.

TO: for the recipient/s
CC: copy of the email sent to the recipient in the TO field, but can be seen by all addresses
BCC: blind copy of email sent to the recipient of in the TO field and no one else can see anyone elses addresses.

[brawnypandora0]

LOL

Yes if you put them all in the TO field then yes they can all see each others email addresses, so if you dont want them too then place one address in the TO field and the others in BCC if you want to protect their privacy or yours from whom you sent the email to.

TO: for the recipient/s
CC: copy of the email sent to the recipient in the TO field, but can be seen by all addresses
BCC: blind copy of email sent to the recipient of in the TO field and no one else can see anyone elses addresses.

Which address of the three? I just randomly pick one out of the three and then the other two in the BCC?

Will the two BCC people know that their email is BCC'ed?

[Wim Sturkenboom]

Not the specialist on the subject, but as far as I know

Send an email to a friend, your brother or whatever to test it out. You can send without the TO field filled in (evolution will give you a warning about it). Some mail servers will fill it in with something like 'undisclosed recipients'.

If a mail without a completed TO field is received by the recipients mail server, it will often earn you an additional point in the spam detection software that they use and the recipient might see something like "SPAM: your subject"; NOT a good thing.

One will in general not know that the email was a BCC. I always send to myself (or another email address that I have) and bcc the rest. Possibly odd.

My experience (using smtp)
if you send one email to multiple people (regardless if they are in to, cc or bcc), that email is actually send multiple times. The mail client will take each recipient listed and send the email to the / your mail server (which will distribute further).

[haqking]

Which address of the three? I just randomly pick one out of the three and then the other two in the BCC?

Will the two BCC people know that their email is BCC'ed?

its doesnt matter.

what do you want to do then perhaps it can be explained to make more sense.

The TO: is who you want the email to go to, if it is for more than 1 person and you dont mind who see the other person addresses then put them all in the TO filed if you wish.

If it is going to one person mainly say to your Boss then put their address in the TO: field and copy it to say your work colleague in the CC: that way your boss gets the mail meant for him but your colleague wil get a copy so he knows what you sent.

Both the boss and colleague will be aware that they got the email and can see each others addresses.

If you wanted to send one to your Boss and not let them see you sent it to someone else also then put your boss in the TO: field and the other person in your Bcc field.

Blind means Blind, cant see.

[haqking]

Not the specialist on the subject, but as far as I know

Send an email to a friend, your brother or whatever to test it out. You can send without the TO field filled in (evolution will give you a warning about it). Some mail servers will fill it in with something like 'undisclosed recipients'.

If a mail without a completed TO field is received by the recipients mail server, it will often earn you an additional point in the spam detection software that they use and the recipient might see something like "SPAM: your subject"; NOT a good thing.

One will in general not know that the email was a BCC. I always send to myself (or another email address that I have) and bcc the rest. Possibly odd.

My experience (using smtp)
if you send one email to multiple people (regardless if they are in to, cc or bcc), that email is actually send multiple times. The mail client will take each recipient listed and send the email to the / your mail server (which will distribute further).


Evolution and most mail clients wont support the blank TO: field unless you have at least one in the CC:, you cant just use BCC field, just to be clear ;-)

[mcduck]

Evolution and most mail clients wont support the blank TO: field unless you have at least one in the CC:, you cant just use BCC field, just to be clear ;-)

It's also quite common for spam filters to classify mails sent without a TO: field as spam. In addition mail servers use different kinds of tools to try to detect spammers, and sending mail without a TO: filed can increase your "spam points", possibly resulting in suspending the mail account if you send too much that kind of mail.

[haqking]

It's also quite common for spam filters to classify mails sent without a TO: field as spam. In addition mail servers use different kinds of tools to try to detect spammers, and sending mail without a TO: filed can increase your "spam points", possibly resulting in suspending the mail account if you send too much that kind of mail.

yes indeed.

I am still trying to figure out what the OP actually wants to do anyways, i thought it had been explained clearly so far by everyone.

Perhaps not ?

[Wim Sturkenboom]

Evolution and most mail clients wont support the blank TO: field unless you have at least one in the CC:, you cant just use BCC field, just to be clear ;-)

Oh yes,it does allow it. You get a nice warning that you can ignore. I haven't checked the receiver's side with regards to spam but it was received.

[haqking]

Oh yes,it does allow it. You get a nice warning that you can ignore. I haven't checked the receiver's side with regards to spam but it was received.


I know the ignore message to which you refer, but in my evolution if i use the only the Bcc field i get what you see in image attached.

must be a bug in my evolution

To be honest it isnt something i would ever do anyways, only playing around at the mo because of this thread.

[Wim Sturkenboom]

I suggest that you file a bug report :D

I'm on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, evolution 2.28.3, by the way and also only playing because of this thread.

[haqking]

I suggest that you file a bug report :D

I'm on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, evolution 2.28.3, by the way and also only playing because of this thread.

I am on 2.30.3

Funny thing is, if i place text in the body of the mail it gives me the warning which i can ignore, if i leave body empty it gives me the cant send message if only using Bcc: LOL

I love software bugs, filled with beautiful complexity in a chaotic sort of way