To, Cc and Bcc

[MyNameisTheStig]

Here's a brief description of each, from what I know:

To - Main Address that you want to send the mail to
Cc - Secondary address to whom the mail is not directed, but should read the e-mail
Bcc - An address kept private from those who have the mail sent "To" or "Cc"ed to them

I'm not so sure about the last to, but I know I'm right about the first one :)

Can someone please tell me what they're for?

[MaindotC]

CC means Courtesy Copy and is as you stated. Bcc means Blind Courtesy Copy and is also as you stated.

[niceguy123]

Here's a brief description of each, from what I know:

To - Main Address that you want to send the mail to
Cc - Secondary address to whom the mail is not directed, but should read the e-mail
Bcc - An address kept private from those who have the mail sent "To" or "Cc"ed to them

I'm not so sure about the last to, but I know I'm right about the first one :)

Can someone please tell me what they're for?

Sounds right.

[MyNameisTheStig]

CC means Courtesy Copy and is as you stated. Bcc means Blind Courtesy Copy and is also as you stated.

ah, right, thanks :)

I'll use Bcc more often now I know what it does

thanks again

[Moustacha]

I always thought CC meant Carbon Copy, as it comes from the days of typewriters and such when you put carbon paper in to make a copy. and the B=Blind

[samjh]

I always thought CC meant Carbon Copy, as it comes from the days of typewriters and such when you put carbon paper in to make a copy. and the B=Blind

That was my understanding also.

On a related note, it can be considered rude to use BCC in normal business correspondence.

[MaindotC]

That was my understanding also.

Everyone is afforded one mess-up. You've used yours. Don't let it happen again.


On a related note, it can be considered rude to use BCC in normal business correspondence.
Anything can be considered rude. Use BCC to your heart's content because the CC'd members will never know.

[samjh]

Everyone is afforded one mess-up. You've used yours. Don't let it happen again.

Anything can be considered rude. Use BCC to your heart's content because the CC'd members will never know.

Actually, it seems my recollection was correct.

Thanks to the power of Google, most sources interpret CC and BCC as Carbon Copy and Blind Carbon Copy respectively, although Wikipedia does mention Courtesy Copy as an alternative.

One example: http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/a/cc_and_bcc.htm

As for BCC, my employer (a large multinational) discourages using BCC except for purposes of legal compliance and training, or inter-business confidentiality. It's a matter of trust, more than anything.

[MaindotC]

I don't trust anything unless it comes from wiki. And yes, it is a matter of trust, and in a corporate environment you trust no one.

[samjh]

I don't trust anything unless it comes from wiki. And yes, it is a matter of trust, and in a corporate environment you trust no one.

Interesting. I usually don't trust something in a Wiki unless it is referenced to an known expert source.

As for trust in a corporate environment, it depends. If I'm communicating to my staff, I have nothing to hide unless if it is for compliance monitoring. Same thing if I'm communicating with other personnel, unless there is a dispute and someone (eg. HR or an exec) wants to monitor it without being noticed. If it's communication between businesses, then it's a different kettle of fish.

[forrestcupp]

I've actually heard that it is rude to not use BCC. If you BCC everyone then no one knows who else got the email. That way someone can't look at someone else's email and realize they were the only one in the department to not get that email. I've seen plenty of times that BCC prevented a lot of trouble.

And it definitely was originally Carbon Copy, but to update to modern terms some people say Courtesy Copy. Some day, no one will even know what a Carbon Copy is.

[Dr Small]

CC = Carbon Copy
BCC = Blind Carbon Copy

[philliptweedie]

I've actually heard that it is rude to not use BCC.

That was my understanding as well. Although mainly from a spam point of view.

When I was at University once an email was sent round CC'd to everyone at our particular halls of residence. Shortly after one enterprising little **** decided to use all our email addresses to bombard us with advertisements for gigs etc in the area.

That is why I am a big BCC fan!

[MyNameisTheStig]

I've actually heard that it is rude to not use BCC. If you BCC everyone then no one knows who else got the email. That way someone can't look at someone else's email and realize they were the only one in the department to not get that email. I've seen plenty of times that BCC prevented a lot of trouble.

And it definitely was originally Carbon Copy, but to update to modern terms some people say Courtesy Copy. Some day, no one will even know what a Carbon Copy is.

The Carbon Copy thing's interesting, I want to get a typewriter now

so, you're saying I should always Bcc? I might try that :) unless I'm only sending to one person, then there's no point

[chewearn]

If you work in a large corporation, it's considered very important to bcc when sending out a mail to a large number of people.

Else, sooner or later, a retard will click "Reply to all" to make a lame reply and blasting everyone in the list with his stupidity.


On a different note, bcc is known to be used for people sucking up to da boss when mailing something clever. See, he keep the boss in the loop, but don't want people to know. :mrgreen:

I have also seen some bosses who make it compulsory for his peopl to bcc him in everything, so he wouldn't be caught with his pants down (when the sh*t hit the fan). :mrgreen:

Now you know... the fun in an office, just like Dilbert says.

[mkendall]

I always figured that the point of CC was to let the "To:" person know that someone else received a copy. For example:

To: A-hole
CC: Boss
Re: Client #55654

Never try to steal another account of mine again.

[Lostincyberspace]

Actually it stands for carbon copy but it is often called courtesy copy since carbon paper is no longer used and people are not familiar with that term.

In the old days you put sheets regular paper between sheets of carbon paper with one on top and then write you message and have all the pages with the same message which is what you are doing when you send a CC.

[forrestcupp]

I never really understood the point of Cc in emails when you can just put everyone in the 'To' box. The only reason I can think of is if a message is specifically meant for a certain person, but you want more people to see it. I personally don't have much use for it.

[klange]

I never really understood the point of Cc in emails when you can just put everyone in the 'To' box. The only reason I can think of is if a message is specifically meant for a certain person, but you want more people to see it. I personally don't have much use for it.

It's an indicator that the message is not directed at you.

[mips]

I've actually heard that it is rude to not use BCC.

There is also the issue of privacy. Lets say a doctor sends out a monthly informational mail to all his patients everyone on that list would see my email address. I dont want that and bcc would solve the privacy issue.

This has happened to me before and I informed the individual to use bcc, they apologised and now all email from them is bcc.