Ik kreeg net een e-mail gericht aan niet minder dan 78 mensen, en alle 78 van mensen e-mailadressen waren in het veld. Je zou denken dat de zender zou al onze e-mails in het veld BCC sinds gezet, goed, de ontvangers niet echt nodig om de e-mails van de ander kennen 77 mensen die de e-mail kreeg. (In haar verweerschrift, zetten van alle e-mails in het Aan veld maakt stalking makkelijker, maar is dat niet wat Facebook voor?)
Ik kan begrijpen waarom Cc is niet zo populair: het doet hetzelfde als te, behalve het draagt een andere semantische betekenis. De meeste tieners (en een bos van volwassenen ook) kon niet minder zorg over de fancy schmancy semantische betekenis, zodat ze gewoon te gebruiken om.
But Bcc is there for a few reasons:
- Don’t reveal the email addresses of all the recipients.
- Don’t let the recipient know that someone else has received a copy of the email.
- Let you send an email to many people but make it seem to each recipient that they’re the only one getting the email.
- Avoid the long list of emails at the top of an email message. (Some email clients will show at the top of the message who’s in the To field. If you have 78 people in the To field, that’s an awfully long header.)
And yet, no one uses it. Point #3 isn’t that big (when do you use it?), I’ll give you that. Point #2 isn’t used that often except for being sneaky. But Point #1, that’s big. Everyone sends emails to multiple people. It’s not always a good idea to give out the email addresses of the recipients, especially when you’re sending the email to a group of people who may not know each other. Point #4 isn’t crucial but it’s very important as well; no one likes scrolling through an inordinately long list of email addresses.
So what am I getting at? When you email many people, use Bcc. When you’re just emailing a few friends you can put all their names in the To field, but in some cases you should definitely use Bcc. Voorbeelden:
- You’re sending a newsletter to your mailing list.
- You’re telling all the members of your club that you won’t meet this week.
- You’re the coach of a Little League team and you’re emailing all the parents.
- You’re a school district and you’re telling everyone that school’s closed.
I remember that my old soccer coach didn’t use Bcc, and neither do any leaders of the clubs I’m in. Thankfully my school district has been smart enough to not show 2000 people’s email addresses to the recipients (that would be a nightmare.)
If you took the time to read this rant, then thanks. And also, make sure you use the Bcc field whenever you feel necessary.
