Before you forward to me that joke email doing the rounds, or the one about sexy Sally, or the one about the lad who's trying to get into the Guinness book of records, please read this. Be aware I enjoy the jokes as much as anyone, but some simple advice if you will.

Exposing Email Addresses
Usually you will forward the email to everyone in your address book by adding them all to the 'To:' part of your message. This means you've just told me all of your colleagues email addresses, and them mine. This obviously can be rude but the real damage can be much worse than that.

Many email clients automatically add any addresses to their address books (mine included). So all of your friends addresses are now in my address book, and potentially all in each others.

As many viruses automatically send themselves to everyone in the infected users address book, I'm now going to be fortunate enough to receive a copy if any one of them gets a virus, or any one of their friends, or any one of their friends.

It's fair to say that if anyone of maybe 10 thousand people were really infected, the virus would forward itself on and on through all of the other address books and probably at some point arrive in my inbox.

If you really must forward or send an email to everyone in your address book then consult the documentation for the software you use to find out how to send an email like this using the 'Bcc:' field rather than the 'To:' field.

Normal practice is to send the email to yourself and Bcc it to everyone else, thus ensuring the email addresses don't get exposed.

A Little Housework
Finally and before you email it, Cut and Paste the actual interesting bits into a new email. I do not want to read a list of the last five thousand people who have already read it, and then struggle to read it
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>because
>>>>>>>>>>>>>all
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>of
>>>>>>>>the for-
>>>wards
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>have
>>>>>>>>>>got
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>these
>>>>>>>>>>>bloody
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>arrows
>>>on.