> > The primary purpose of Bcc: is to hide Bcc: addresses from the To: and Cc: addresses and not from others on the Bcc: list.
>
> Typically I'll use Bcc when inviting people to some function where it's not necessary or desirable for everyone to know who else is
> invited - and to make it feel like a more individual invitation, rather than a mass mailing. This would seem to be a mainstream use of
> Bcc, but apparently it's a dicey proposition...

This might be the primary purpose of home users but in the corporate world this is usually used to notify various supervisors/bosses and to hide this list from the other addresses.  The people on the Bcc: list want to know everyone who received this as well.  

If you really want to send something to a group and suppress the e-mail addresses use a distribution list with a sender field.  This will allow you to put a good e-mail address in the To: field so that the replies to the To: field do not go to all the other users.  Here's a sample of a Pegasus Mail dist. List with a sender field.  

----------------------------- test.pml ------------------------------
\TITLE Test List
\SENDER "My mailing List" <test@tstephenson.com>
\REPLYTO test@tstephenson.com
\READING Y
\DELIVERY Y
\URGENT Y
\SIGNATURE 1

techsupp@tstephenson.com
support@tstephenson.com

---------------------------- cut here --------------------------------

Using v 4.61. Sent email with a distribution list in the Blind CC line, and all the recipients saw the entire bcc list. Is there any way to avoid this? Thanks!  Steve

> Using v 4.61. Sent email with a distribution list in the Blind CC line, and all the recipients saw the entire bcc list. Is there any way
> to avoid this? Thanks!  Steve

BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) is a useful, but poorly-standardized feature. The Bcc: addresses are always required to be hidden from the To: and Cc: addresses but are not required to be hidden from other Bcc: addresses.  In accordance with the RFC there are at least three ways a Bcc: field could be written into a message by a mail client program:

1.       it could be omitted altogether;

2.       it could contain only each individual recipient's address;

3.       or it could contain all the addresses Bcc: field.

The mail servers can also control this to some degree as well even when the mail client allows the Bcc: addresses to see each other by suppressing this address field.

By default, Pegasus Mail lists all the recipients in the Bcc: field of mail it sends. If you would prefer that no addresses were shown in the field, then check the control  Tools | Options | Sending mail "Suppress BCC field listings in outgoing mail  ". When this option is turned on, the Bcc: field will simply contain the text "(Suppressed)", without any addresses.

[quote user="weamish"]Using v 4.61. Sent email with a distribution list in the Blind CC line, and all the recipients saw the entire bcc list. Is there any way to avoid this? [/quote]

First of all ensure that Tools => Options => Sending mail => Suppress BCC field listings ... is enabled. If this isn't enough consider the following information from the Distribution list options chapter of Pegasus Mail's online help:

To field (suppressing the list of recipients): Entering an address in this field will force Pegasus Mail to suppress the listing of all the recipients' addresseses in the To: field when you use the list. Instead of showing every member of the list, the To: field will contain only what you enter here. Because of the way Internet mail works, you cannot simply enter any piece of text in this field -- you must enter something which can be legally processed as if it were an address. We recommend that you use the following format to create the contents of this field:

"(descriptive text)" <(your own address)>

Replace (descriptive text) with a meaningful name for the mailing list, and put your own address where it says (your own address). Recipients will almost always see the descriptive text instead of your address so it will not seem as strange as it sounds. The quote characters around (descriptive text) and the angle bracket characters around (your own address) are vitally important and must be included exactly as shown. It is not possible to suppress the recipient list for MHS mail and this field will be ignored for MHS messages.

 [Sorry, Thomas, was already creating this when you posted your reply]

Thanks for the info. Is there any downside to suppressing BCC field listings in outgoing mail? Is there some reason that's not the default behavior?

Steve

> Thanks for the info. Is there any downside to suppressing BCC field listings in outgoing mail? Is there some reason that's not the default
> behavior?

Yes, the downside is that the people on the Bcc: list do not know that the others have received the mail.  This can mean in many circumstances the the Bcc; list members may start forwarding the message around so that others that need to see it get the word since they do not know that they did not get the message.

The primary purpose of Bcc: is to hide Bcc: addresses from the To: and Cc: addresses and not from others on the Bcc: list.

"The primary purpose of Bcc: is to hide Bcc: addresses from the To: and Cc: addresses and not from others on the Bcc: list."

Typically I'll use Bcc when inviting people to some function where it's not necessary or desirable for everyone to know who else is invited - and to make it feel like a more individual invitation, rather than a mass mailing. This would seem to be a mainstream use of Bcc, but apparently it's a dicey proposition...