Clearly, I haven't been on here in a while. But sometimes, I have the need to vent more than the 140 characters Twitter will allow me.
What is it with the mass-mailers of this world who have yet to discover the discretion of blind copying?
When I learned how to use a computer, it was one of the first rules they taught:
NEVER send out an email to a bunch of people displaying the addresses of a bunch of other people.
It leaves all recipients open to increased risk of spam and worse... viruses and other nasty things.
Plus, in addition to the angst felt when you see you have been included in the twenty-plus list of names and addresses, some of those people hit the "Reply All" and you start getting responses from people you've never met before and you think, "Who the hell is this sending me emails now?"
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| The above recent email is just one of the examples of why you don't want strangers having access to your email address... and I don't speak (or read) curlicue. |
I invariably search, every time I receive one of these annoying mass emailings, for some cleverly written, tongue-in-cheek article that could be sent to these unwitting mass-mailers. I look for something I could just send out to everyone, in my own diplomatic, passive aggressive manner. I would bcc everyone (or at least say I was... and how would they know? They wouldn't! And you know why? >drumroll please< Because I had blind-copied them!!!) and say that I thought this was a really interesting article about blind-copying... I would act like I had been ignorant, just like them... and now I had found this great article and wanted to share this delicious revelation with the world, because I am sure that they (just like me) would never want to expose my friends, relations and acquaintances to the horrors and injustices of privacy invasion... no, SIR! By the way, I have never found said article, just lots of write-ups on how irritated those in-the-know get and here's the link you should send that person, blah blah blah.
Why go through all this smoke and mirrors? Why pretend I have just recently shed my ignorance like a dirty sock?
Because deep down, that person who sent that anecdote that they thought was really funny had no idea that they were doing anything bad or potentially hazardous to anyone. They are oblivious that what they are doing leaves others open to viruses... viruses that they may be generating themselves because they are some of the same people who trust everyone who sends them email.
So, what... now I am going to just blatantly slap them with their "You naughtikins! You put me and the 40 others on your copy list at risk! Wisen up!"
No. Of course I am not going to do that.
Instead, I return to my blog that I have left stagnant for years, just so I can vent my irritations at the ignorance of the Internetters.
Maybe next time, this will be a little more put together. Maybe like a real story. Maybe like why anyone would ever NOT want to live in Hawaii.
