[USCC] Moderator Message : Again, please no CC copies when sending messages to the USCC list!

[Jim McNelly]

List Members,

Please read this important list information notice.

This week, four more of our members have sent put a second or even 
third e-mail address into the CC line of their message sent to the 
USCC list.  Four more members have had their accounts suspended for 
thirty days.  Our policy is clear.  CC copies to other e-mail 
addresses are not allowed on the USCC Discussion List.  We suspend 
accounts for thirty days without warning at the first offense.

List managing is challenging enough and 90% of our list problems 
arise from the endless confusion that results when members CC 
messages to other addresses when sending messages to the USCC 
list.  When CC messages are sent, ALL replies to the list go to the 
CC address and ALL private messages from the addresses copied go the 
main list, resulting in private messages going public and public 
messages going private.

Once started, the confusion can last for months and months, typically 
leading to frustration by victims of private messages going public 
blaming us, the list moderators, for "causing" this and "doing this 
to them".  This is so serious a problem of personal privacy that we 
have no choice but to immediately suspend offenders, even though the 
problem is not stopped since the offending message went to the CC 
address even though it did not reach the USCC  list.  I have to send 
this response to all CC recipients in the hope that they do not 
respond to the message with the USCC address in the header, further 
confounding the problem.  We have to stop these rogue messages at the 
source before they turn into a nightmare for all concerned.

What will happen if the other address recipients were to respond 
privately to the sender and their response inadvertently goes to the 
USCC list?  The USCC list members would not know what they were 
talking about since we rejected your message. If the CC recipient 
were to respond to the sender and inadvertently to the USCC list, 
then we would have to suspend their account as well since they did 
not catch the CC that the sender started.   If their message included 
confidential, private information, imagine their shock when they 
realize that their comments went out to 1,000 of their fellow professionals!

This is all so unnecessary as the other CC address that these 
messages are sent to are typically members of the USCC list and do 
not need a CC duplicate copy so there is no reason to ever send a CC 
in the first place.  If you MUST send a copy to someone else, send 
the copy under separate cover, using only one e-mail address total in 
any of the TO: CC: or BCC: lines.

Can you think of a way for us to be more effective in letting  our 
members know how serious this problem is?  I have repeatedly notified 
the list members to NEVER EVER send CC messages to the list, but even 
after several months of warnings, four times this week, someone sent 
a CC to someone else and I have to step in and get cranky and send a 
nasty note out and suspend their account. I am a nice guy and do not 
like playing the heavy, but I care deeply about the survival of the 
USCC discussion list that I founded, and CC messages, if not stopped, 
will destroy it.  What else can I do to stop this problem?  I am open 
to suggestions, privately of course.

This CC message issue is a problem of all Internet lists and gets 
especially horrific when people CC multiple discussion lists, which 
causes the problem to be amplified by thousands of addresses.

I repeat myself, Please PLEASE do not post any CC addresses to 
messages sent to our list!!!  Check the header of messages to the 
list you are replying to as well.  There may be a CC recipient 
without you even knowing it.  The CC problem can go on for months as 
most of our members are not even aware that they are sending a CC 
e-mail address that was included long earlier from someone else.

Sorry to bother everyone about this, but this is an important policy 
which is designed to protect our member's privacy.  People do not 
deserve to have private messages go public just because someone put a 
second e-mail address in the CC copy line when sending a message or 
reply to the public discussion list.

Am I making myself clear how much a problem this is?  Could you all 
stop doing this?

Thank you,


Jim McNelly
US Composting Council
Discussion List Moderator
jim at composter.com
www.compostingcouncil.org
www.composter.com