Blind Carbon Copy – the term “carbon copy” dates back to the olden days of typewriters when the typist would place a sheet of smudgy carbon coated paper between two sheets of normal paper. When typing, a second copy would automatically be created, the carbon copy, saving the typist some time by not having to type out a separate copy.
Using modern email, we can “CC” (carbon copy) extra recipients of an email just by including them on the To list. There’s a problem with this approach: too many people have a knee jerk reaction to click the Reply-All button instead of the Reply button, and email storms ensue.
For example let’s say a teacher is trying to coordinate a pot luck dinner for a school band. The teacher would compose an email similar to:
Immediately Reply-All responses start rolling in:
- “I’ll bring cookies.”
- “I’ll bring soda.”
- “I can’t make it that day, but can we move the date out by a few days because …”
- “I totally forgot we were planning this, but I also want to talk about a few fund raising ideas. Who here thinks that we should …”
A better approach by John was to use BCC. John put his email address, and only his email address, on the To list. Everyone else was listed on the BCC list. Using BCC, each person receives the email, but if they reply-all, it only goes to John, sparing everyone else an onslaught of emails. Each individual person cannot see the full list of recipients. More importantly, the recipients are prevented from replying-all to the full list of recipients.
Here’s what it looks like in Google’s Gmail (your email client may look different).
John’s the hero, and everyone is happier not receiving a barrage of emails.