Er, what the subject says. If I send out a group email using a BCC list, and somebody hits “reply to all”, does their reply go to the BCC’d addresses to?
No.
The BCC causes each person in the BCC list to get a copy of the message without the addresses of the others in the list. That’s the whole point of BCC.
That’s what I was hoping to hear, but Googling came up with mixed advice, including warnings that replies would still go to BCC addresses. Are you sure?
Sure I’m sure. unless you are using a really crappy mail client.
Try this:
Send yourself a message with you own address in the “TO:” field and your own address twice in the “BCC:” field. You should get three messages, all three adresses “TO:” your address. Then examine the headers. It should be fairly obvious if the “BCC:” stuff is still there.
[hijack] What’s BCC and what does it stand for? [/hijack]
CC=carbon coby
BCC=blind carbon copy
Well, I can answer asterion at least. BCC stands for “blind carbon copy”, and it’s one of the address options on an email. You address a message “To” one or more people, and you can also put addresses in the CC (carbon copy) field. All recipients will see the names of the other people that get a copy.
But if you want to send a message to someobody and also send it to somebody else but without the recipient knowing that it’s going to that other person, you would use BCC.
Similarly, you can use it, as I am doing, to send out a group email to a load of people, none of whom can see who else it is going to, by sending it to yourself and putting all the other addresses in the BCC field.
(Don’t worry, I’m not sending spam - I’m off on a big trip at the weekend and will be sending email newsletters from time to time, but various people wouldn’t want their addresses broadcast to all my other friends)
Address field for emails that hides all other addresses in the BCC field from each recipient. If you address an email to person A, and in the BCC field enter addresses for B, C and D, then A will only see themselves as the sole recipient, while B, C and D will see their own address and that of A (but nobody else’s).
Very useful at work - e.g. sending emails to clients and copying in your boss for reference.
This a throwback to paper?
No, it’s all done electronically - there’s no paper involved. 
But of course the reason it’s called “carbon copy” is a throwback to paper memos, and instructions to secretaries on who should get carbon copies.
True enough. Some people have started referring to it as “courtesy copy” and “blind courtesy copy.” I’ll wager there are a fair number of youngsters who don’t have a clue what a “carbon” is!
Carbon? Ain’t that one o’ them real purty short rifles?
No, no. You must be thinking of “carabiner.”
[This thread is in serious danger of wandering off into a malapropism fest.]
Yep. Anyway, thanks for the answers, folks. Mods: feel free to close this thread now.
That’s the whole point of the initial message, but aren’t those other email addresses there somewhere, but hidden? The question is about a reply to an email, not the initial email itself. So when one clicks “Reply to All”, does the reply factor in those hidden emails?
If the email client and server are working properly, there should be no trace of the BCC addresses in the messages others on the BCC list receive. This eliminates the possibility of the replying to every one on the BCC list.
Sendmail (as a mail transfer agent) does this for you. There are also some clients that do this.
Damifino what a screwed up MTA might do, though. I’m particularly thinking of MS Exchange. I haven’t the faintest idea what it does, but it may be that it screws up the BCC stuff - which would account for the conflicting information about BCC.
Well, I reanswered the question, and my answer was the same as Mort’s. I sent an email to myself here at work with my home email as the BCC. Then I took the received email from work and clicked Reply All. This would either send that email to just the original sender (me at work) or to the original and the BCC (me at home).
I received the second email at work. Did not receive it at home.
All is well in the land of dan.
It can, but it should not. In cc:Mail it used to be that reply to all replied to bcc: addresses as well. More sane mailers do not work that way. The only way to be sure is to run tests.
OK, I’ve now done what I should have done before and consulted the help file (I’ll be using Yahoo! Mail):
So, looks like you were right, Mort Furd.