[Gmail-Users] Re: Happy New Year!

On 1/2/06, Gerard Seibert <gerard.seibert@gmail.com> wrote:
<clipped>
> If they have any knowledge of reading email headers they will know
> instantly. In addition, may programs such as MailWasher will detect that
> the recipient was sent to via the 'BCC:' line whether or not an actual
> name was used in the 'TO:' field.

I've used MailWasher, decent program. but your logic has holes.
MailWasher (at least in every incarnation I'm aware of) is not a mail
server, but a POP3 retriever. It can detect if you were on the TO or
CC line, but it is not fed a BCC line, so it can tell no difference
between this message (to a group you subscribe) or a message I truely
BCCed you on, cause your address is not anywhere in the headers. In
fact, the message (actual raw format between servers) is passed
identically between a listserv and a receiver as a BCC is passed.

> There are so many far more eloquent ways to handle this situation that I
> can only deduce that the users of 'BCC:' are either to lazy,
> inconsiderate or uneducated to use a more personalized method of
> transmission.

OK... I've added you to 3 different mailing lists that I use so I
don't reveal your address to the hundreds of other people I'm sending
the messages to. Hope you don't mind being involuntarily subscribed
to the groups and appreciate the volume of mail that doesn't pertain
to the subjects I'm intending you to get copied on. (I have *NOT*
added anyone to any lists like this, I'm using sarcasm to bring the
point home)

I also downloaded a program that lets me send a message to a hundred
different people, and always have their name on the To line without
manually retyping the message. I downloaded it from a site that was
offering to sell me "1 milloin valid non-AOL e-mail addresses", but I
passed on that as I don't have a need for them. Thankfully the site
also had a list of open-proxies they'd detected around the world for
me to use since running my own SMTP server blocks me from sending to
many of my friends. (Again, sarcasm, and intentional misspelling to
illustrate that those type programs are available on SPAMmers web
pages, and used by SPAMmers. Yes they have valid uses, so does BCC,
but they are being used as tools by SPAMmers)

> One last thing. If your message gets blocked by a filter that is 'BCC:'
> aware, don't cry. You were warned!

If I am blocked from sending to you, simply because you were a BCC
rather than a To, and everything else was properly formatted per the
RFCs, then I might cry a little. The filter that drops mail SIMPLY
because you're not on the TO or CC lines when everything else checks
out, is violating the standards (something you've gotten on GMail
about, though their implementation isn't technically in violation,
just not specifically followed exactly as you'd like). Your receiving
mail server, as I've stated already, has no idea whether you are the
ONLY BCC receiver, or there are thousands of BCCs on this message
(this very message does have thousands, as there are over 4000
subscribers to this group). It only knows how many To and CC
addresses there are, and if you are one of THEM.

Blocking cause there is *NO* TO line is in protocol, as it is a
required field. If it chooses to label it as suspected Junk/Spam (as
Yahoo and Hotmail do), then that's acceptable, and up to the user to
discern the difference.

> --
> Gerard Seibert
> gerard.seibert@gmail.com
>
>