Yourself in (B)CC on every mail!

[maarten1]

Hi,

I´m experimenting with an Outlook rule, which automatically puts myself in CC on every single email I send. When I get my own mail back in my Inbox, I can then (a) move it to @WAITING FOR, (b) move it to another folder for reference purposes, or (c) delete it.

My initial experiences are positive: it doesn´t cost me a lot more time, but it does help to ensure that my emailsystem is 100% watertight. The only thing is that everyone sees that I CC myself on my emails which is a bit weird. If only you could do it with BCC, but I don´t think Outlook supports that.

Two questions:
1. Has anyone else tried this and, if so, what did you think?
2. Does anyone know how to do the BCC thing in Outlook? It would be great!

Thanks,
Maarten

[dragynox]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ou...CL100626971033

A little harder to find that I thought it would be. Also learned that I was using Word as my email editor.

[Cpu_Modern]

I used to do it that way before I started with Gmail. (Now, off course, I don't need to do it anymore, but the idea of using a classic email-client and hack Gmail-like behaviour into it still sounds intriguing.)

[dusanv]

Hi Maarten,

I´m experimenting with an Outlook rule, which automatically puts myself in CC on every single email I send.
...
The only thing is that everyone sees that I CC myself on my emails which is a bit weird. If only you could do it with BCC, but I don´t think Outlook supports that.

I am using Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client, where auto Bcc (as opposed to auto Cc) is offered as an option. I really seldom use Windows or Outlook, but from my previous experience there is actually a (commercial) plugin for Outlook that does what you are looking for -- I've forgotten its name though, try googling "outlook auto bcc plugin". If you don't feel like purchasing that plugin or switching to a different mail client, I think your best bet is to set up an additional email address which you would keep secret and which you'd auto Cc the way you are currently doing with your primary address.

Dusan

[enovabus]

I use this http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook/Always-BCC.asp

Works well, Occassionally stops working (rarely) and I have to reinitialize it. Think I paid 19 bucks for it 3 or 4 years ago. I use the CC function rather than the BCC as I read somewhere that BCC's will cause some spam filters to trash your email. Would like to hear that's not true if anyone knows differently...I think by now everyone knows I am a weird guy that CC's himself at work...

[dusanv]

I use the CC function rather than the BCC as I read somewhere that BCC's will cause some spam filters to trash your email. Would like to hear that's not true if anyone knows differently...

As the mail user agent cannot know if the message it received was Bcc-ed or not (you can check this by inspecting the message header), MUA's spam filters can't discard it based on that criterion. So I hope that was convincing enough.

Dusan

EDIT: After looking at RFC 2822, this doesn't seem to be completely true, however you are generally safer with Bcc than Cc and especially if Bcc-ing to your primary address assuming you are sending from a disposable one (e.g. that way viruses can't harvest your main address from the Cc list if the recipient's system was infected). For Bcc-ing multiple addresses, it seems safer to do so one by one, as at least for now the RFC does not guarantee they would be hidden from each other (though from my experience virtually any MUA/MTA implementation does it that way). And if your spam filter is trashing your mail based on its being Bcc-ed (I am not aware of such filters though), you should get another spam filter, as that one is obviously buggy.

[Oogiem]

CC on every single email I send. When I get my own mail back in my Inbox, I can then (a) move it to @WAITING FOR, (b) move it to another folder for reference purposes, or (c) delete it.

Why not just process your sent mail folder as an inbox and process it that way?

Most mail clients can automatically save a copy of every e-mail you send. I've been doing that since early CompuServe, well over 15 years ago, now do it in apple's mail. I assume Outlook can do it as well.

[dusanv]

Why not just process your sent mail folder as an inbox and process it that way?

Most mail clients can automatically save a copy of every e-mail you send. I've been doing that since early CompuServe, well over 15 years ago, now do it in apple's mail. I assume Outlook can do it as well.

Recalled that moments after I sent my initial response, but I guessed it's better I not make assumptions about MS software and its behavior.

The way I do it is that I have created a virtual folder (saved search) by applying a filter to Sent folder (so mail sent from my other addresses gets filtered out), and process from that folder -- so basically the same approach.

Speaking of 15+ years ago, I recall that back then, I did not receive or send much email in the today's meaning, partly because bandwidth was an issue to the extent that even sending/receiving email was way too slow over a 14.4 kbit/s or slower modem line and partly because BBS-es were more common or accessible than Internet. Also, many people couldn't have grasped the concept of a computer, let alone email, so the email itself was a sort of rarity. Just my experience, YMMV.

Dusan

[Oogiem]

The way I do it is that I have created a virtual folder (saved search) by applying a filter to Sent folder (so mail sent from my other addresses gets filtered out), and process from that folder...

Speaking of 15+ years ago, I recall that back then, I did not receive or send much email in the today's meaning

I can see the automatic filtering being useful. I just leave it all in sent myself. If I have to do something I put a copy of the message into OF.

Now you've got me to wondering the volume of e-mail messages I dealt with initially. We've had our own domain name for 14 years so I've had a separate e-mail address for a long time. Our first domain name was when domains were still restricted to 8 characters Got a longer one 11 years ago. I keep nearly all my sent and received e-mail so let me go check.

OK Back after a quick check. looks like in 1995 and 1996 I averaged 100 e-mails a day sent and received. No idea on spam levels, I delete those.

Current levels right now for this month also running about 100 a day real messages and I also get between 200-300 spam messages a day that I still have to check by hand for real messages. Yes, I've tuned and put in rules for my spam filters but I have between 3-5 real messages a week caught as spam. I can't white list the senders as they are all from strangers. But when you get messages from unknown folks asking about semen sales no spam filer in the world can deal with it. Hazards of being a farmer on the internet

[Roger]

> Has anyone else tried this and, if so, what did you think?

I’ve been doing this for years and years, but manually. I hardly even think about it any more.

>> Why not just process your sent mail folder as an inbox and process it that way?

I like having as few inboxes as possible. I also move all my processed email into one folder, so there are fewer places where it won’t be when I go looking for it.

At the end of the day, it probably doesn’t make a huge difference either way.



Cheers,
Roger