I Wish To Grok Group E-Mail

December 30, 2008 10:13 PM

I plan to send a daily e-mail to a Gmail contact group. In order to mask the e-mail addresses of the people in the group, I'll enter them in the Bcc field of the compose window. Here are my questions: What e-mail address should I put in the To: field? And, what address appears in the recipient's e-mail inbox?
posted by partner to computers & internet (8 answers total)

You don't have to put anything in the to field. If you leave it blank, each recipient will receive the email as if it was addressed to them directly and only them. However, when I've sent emails like this, I've put my own email address in the To field. That tips people off that the email was not likely sent to them and them alone, but probably to a bunch of people who are all in the "bcc" field, like they were. Of course, starting the email with "Hey everybody!" tips them off too.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:20 PM on December 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oh, and I should add, each recipient of the email will know its from you. I know that may seem fairly obvious, but its good to point out if you were attempting to send the email completely anonymously (in which this would not be successful).
posted by iamkimiam at 10:22 PM on December 30, 2008

I've likewise noticed the sender putting their own address in the To: field in similar circumstances.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 10:37 PM on December 30, 2008

Make a contact that is your email address but put something like "Daily Emailing List" as the name. Put that in the To: Replies will go to you but everyone will know its a BCC list.
posted by Ookseer at 10:40 PM on December 30, 2008

RFC822 has a syntax for named groups (IIRC) which can be lightly abused to have a non-empty To: field with no actual addresses in it. Dunno if gmail allows you to enter it.

In the past, sending mail to a bunch of Bcc:s with no To or Cc would cause the mailer to stuff all the Bcc addresses into the header as "Apparently-To:".
posted by hattifattener at 2:14 AM on December 31, 2008 [1 favorite]

Not all mailers will let you send things out with a totally blank "To" field. I do this same kind of thing, but my mailer is one of those that won't let you leave the "To" field blank, so I just put my own email address there.

Been doing it this way for years, it's always worked.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:53 AM on December 31, 2008

Since this sounds like a sensitive, graceful task and your checking out the details. I just want to bring your attention to the "sent on behalf of" problem with gmail:

http://ask.metafilter.com/83626/How-to-remove-Sender-header-on-behalf-of-when-sending-from-Gmail
posted by ezekieldas at 6:03 AM on December 31, 2008 [1 favorite]

I've often seen the "To:" field filled with "Undisclosed Recipient(s)" when I've received an email sent to a bunch of bcc's with no "to" address
posted by msbrauer at 6:33 PM on December 31, 2008