Subject: "Undisclosed recipients"

From: David Prager Branner <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 08:52:07 -0800 (PST)

A recent change in Pine is that if I send a message only as BCC, without
an entry in the To line, everyone gets a message that says it is addressed
to "undisclosed recipients".  That means I can no longer use BCC to send
the same message to several people without their knowing it.

I don't see why I have to notify people when I am not writing to them
personally.  It is mildly offensive to some people to get mail that isn't
100% personal, and in order to avoid this I will have to spend a great
deal longer writing messages than I used to have to.  Effectively, you
have put an end to one of the great time-saving devices of email.

Please restore the old way BCC worked.

	Sincerely,

David Prager Branner
Asian L&L, University of Washington, Box 353521
Seattle, WA  98195-3521 USA			<[email-masked]>
		Web:  http://weber.u.washington.edu/~yuenren

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From: Terry Gray <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 09:30:10 -0800 (PST)

David,
Here's the rationale behind the change:

The problem with the "old" method is that there is some widely
deployed Internet mail transfer software that will notice an empty To:
line and turn all of the "envelope" recipient addresses (i.e. those in
your BCC line) into "Apparently-To:" header lines... so the "Blind" 
nature of the BCC is totally undermined.

You can control what will end up on the To: line by putting something on
it yourself, either a valid address or any string similar to the
"undisclosed recipients: ;"  <-- note the colon and semicolon at the end.
For example, if you'd like to continue your "personal note" subterfuge,
you could enter on the To: line "My best friend: ;"

But if you leave it blank, Pine will now try to save you from
embarrassment (the unintended disclosure of recipients via BCCs
turning into Apparently-To lines) by adding the Undisclosed recipients
string...

-teg

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 09:22:23 +0100 (BST)

As I understand it this change was made to workaround a problem with some
semi-brain-damaged mail delivery programs.

In particular if such programs received a message without a valid
"To:" field (ie, it was left empty) they would "reveal" the entire list of
recipients by examining the Cc and (more importantly for you) the Bcc
fields and construct an exhaustive list of "Apparently-to:" fields listing
each and every "hidden" recipient!  This is a problem with some mail
delivery programs not Pine.

The fix was to ensure that something was given in the "To" field; for
example your own e-mail address or "Some name:;".

Pine 3.92 ensures your blind message is indeed delivered blindly by
ensuring the "To" field is filled in with something.  If you don't set it
yourself then Pine sets it to the "Undisclosed.recipients:;" value.

This is a Good Thing, as it prevents your message being delivered
"non-blindly" (visibly?:-) by brain-damaged mail delivery software.

If you want to have something else appear instead simply make sure you
give a value for the "To" field.  Examples:

	David Prager Branner <[email-masked]>
or
	A Wonderful Person:;

(The ":;" performs some sort of magic that allows some text other than an
e-mail address to be put here.)

Cheers,

Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
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