Text written by Len Budney at 05:07 PM 1/27/99 -0500:
>
>Does any non-spammer routinely include >25 (or even >5) BCC's in a
>message? The only exception I can think of is corporate email, which,
>of course, is immune to such rules since the corporate mail server can
>handle them appropriately.
Yes. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), among many
other organizations, has a mass mailing list that you can get on by going
to their Web site and signing up for it. It has their reports on depictions
of queers in TV, radio, news and other media, and goes out every two to
three days. Naturally, they don't want everyone on the list to have
everyone else's email address. (And of course, with any queer organization
there are serious outing/closeting and privacy issues to be considered --
what if someone at the Pentagon subscribed to the list just to check for
other .mil addresses?) So they send out their news updates two or three
times a week using the Bcc: field. I have no idea how many people are on
their list, but I'm quite confident that it's at least in four or five digits.
>Does any non-spammer routinely include >25 (or even >5) BCC's in a
>message? ^^^^^^^^^
And, depending on what you mean by "routine", *I* might do such things. I
and my house throw parties on a quasi-regular basis -- anywhere from once a
month to every six months, depending on time of year, what else is
happening on the scene, and what our schedules and motivation are like.
When we throw these things, we invite a fairly disparate crowd that
includes goth/punk freaks, queer activists, club-goers, techies and
cyber-libertarians, some writers and artists, a few martial artists, and
some other folks we know through a variety of circles.
(Hey, it's the San Francisco Bay Area. Our nightlife is kind of
heterogeneous.)
Some of these folks are privacy activists or just generally
privacy-oriented for any of various reasons. And aside from that, not
everyone wants their email address blasted all over the group of people we
invite to our parties. (It's one thing to go to a party with someone, it's
another to give them your email address.) So we usually send out our
invites To: our own address (which anyone coming to our party ought to
recognize instantly) and Bcc: everyone else. This is a list of anywhere
from 50 to 100 people. About the only question is whether we do it
"routinely" or not.
Just because spammers use the Bcc: field doesn't make all use of it evil.
After all, spammers use the Internet, too.
--Kai MacTane.
