How To Safely Forward E-Mails

Posted Under: peeves, technology

I am sending you this because I want you to protect yourself and your online friends. I recently received an email from you that somewhat troubled me. Frankly, knowing that someone who gets your mail might invade my privacy, scares me!

This came to me direct from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. And, a good reminder for those of us who already know, but get *too busy to take the time* due to the number of messages we’ve received. Please read the short letter below …

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer.

Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That’s right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are two easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top).

That’s right, DELETE them. High light them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second.

You MUST click the “Forward” button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don’t click on “Forward” first, you won’t be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc:columns for adding e-mail address. Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses.

This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. If you don’t see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s it, it’s that easy.

When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say “Undisclosed Recipients in the “TO:” field of the people who receive it.

(3) Remove any “FW:” in the subject line.

You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading.

Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it?

By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses.

A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein.

If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.

So please, in the future, let’s stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here’s an idea!!! Let’s send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first).

This is something that SHOULD be forwarded!

When Self Respect Isn’t Always Innate

Posted Under: peeves, random

This piggybacks on my other post. Maybe this is just the kind of mood I’m in lately. With a new year coming we should do better right? Not just to point out women, but when oh when are we going to start taking responsibility? When are we going to govern ourselves the way we ought to and when are we going to become more aware that you don’t know who is watching, if they’re photographing you and stop being so hungry for every single morsel of attention. I talk about it in my book The Plural Thing; we have to love ourselves. Not buy ourselves the most expensive hair weave, or shoes or handbag, but naked in front of a mirror love ourselves before anybody else ever will. Now what possessed this woman to go out like this and pose for a photo knowing she looks like this is beyond me. I mean yeah you have on a Gucci hat but where’s the rest of the outfit? Geez!

Deelishis, Buckeey and Bootz: When 15 Minutes of Fame Goes Too Far

Posted Under: magazines, peeves

I must preface this by saying, as a woman, a black women, these chicks don’t represent me. I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to post this picture because well, I thought wouldn’t that mean I’m buying into exactly why women on a magazine like this sells. I’m not trying to be holier than thou, but as a free moral agent I do have my own opinion and since this is my blog–you know the rest. Anyway, I just think it’s sad to see someone take their television fame and turn it into this. I mean, enlighten me. Maybe they do have a legitimate reason for posing like this. Or maybe they don’t aspire to more than a being booty up in a magazine.

I mean, you want to believe it when women say that they have respect for themselves but then you see something like this or the photos below and you think, “Wow, that’s all you could spin out of your 15 minutes of fame?” I mean can someone get an authentic clothing line out of the deal because I tried to find out about those D jeans and all I got was a phone number or email to inquire about ordering them. WTH? You don’t launch a clothing line by email, with no website. I’m just saying.

Calendars. Okay, I guess that’s another option, but what about Coke? Pepsi? I guess it’s hard to do things like that when you’ve been groped in 10 episodes of a reality series by Flavor Flav. Anyway. I want to know what you think about this. It just agitates me and I mean I guess the ultimate goal is to get their own show like Tiffany Pollard did. At this point–whatever.

Fill in the blank. Women who pose like this _________________.

The Linda Princess Dominique Grosvenor Mailing List Form Letter

Posted Under: life, peeves

People are selfish a lot of times. Seriously. I get emails and BCCs all the time from people who want you to know what they are doing. They take it upon themselves to add you to their mailing list and they hardly know you. I try to send emails to people I have had dialogue with and people who actually know I exist. So, I did what I had to do. I moved my mailing list again and I also created this form letter to send to anyone who sends me something who is not on my mailing list. We’re all trying to make a living here. What’s so wrong with wanting you to return the favor. It’s funny, I’d gotten an email from a woman who asked to be unsubscribed from my mailing list and in less than a week she was sending me something of “hers” via email again. I’m thinking, surely you don’t think you’re going to keep me on your mailing list when you asked me to remove you from “mine”. Heck, they don’t call me the Princess of Guerrilla Marketing for nothing. Anyway here is the form letter. I tried to keep it from sounding snotty.

Hey,

Thanks for adding me to your mailing list. I really don’t mind getting news from authors, artists and musicians because I host a highly trafficked pop culture blog at www.PrincessDominique.com/blog, and am always looking for interesting stories, products and angles to feature, however, as an avid promoter of other people I’d appreciate it if you would return the favor and join my Linda Dominique Grosvenor mailing list by sending a blank email to: princessdominiqueunplugged-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. I send out one mailing per month which shouldn’t overwhelm your inbox and it’ll let you know first the hottest news, contests and upcoming interviews.

Don’t forget to visit, bookmark and link us at Princes Dominique Dishes Pop Culture.

Take care,
Linda “Princess Dominique” Grosvenor
www.LindaDominiqueGrosvenor.com
–
Princess Dominique Dishes Pop Culture
Bestselling Author Linda Dominique Grosvenor
hips you to fashion, television and celeb news
24/7 at: www.PrincessDominique.com/blog

And please all of you with these networking groups, QUIT IT! Just start a mailing list and you can keep all of your friends in one place without trying to force people to sign up for a service they don’t want. I mean, if I have to remember another password or log in name I’ll do a serious rebel yell and I’m not playing.

Floetry Remix Tour Complaint

Posted Under: music, peeves

The Floetry Remix Tour Angers Fan. A reader who actually attended one of the concerts left a comment in the comment section and I wanted to make it an actual post especially since it was so detailed. I’m certain this is the first of many. Read this before you plunk down the cheddar. Thanks for the heads up DChrissy!

I heard about Floetry breaking up too late. Amanda Diva from MTV replaced Nat. I’m fine with that because a lot of vocal groups disband and do their thing. What I’m not fine with is them going on tour and selling tickets as Floetry. They’ve called it “The Floetry Remixed Tour”. What in the hello kitty is happening here?? If I paid to see Floetry, I want to see Floetry, not one of the chicks from the group, and then another chick I don’t even recognize. So here’s the story…I go to Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to see Floetry. So I see some lady I don’t know, and then Marsha Ambrosius (the songstress). They proceed to perform at least 5 songs that no one in the crowd knows. The crowd is completely still…no one’s moving or feeling the music (I use the term music loosely). Amanda Diva is flowing with her own lyrics to replace the old ones and it all sounds like a bunch of noise. The only songs we did recognize were “Say Yes”, “It’s Getting Late”, and “Butterflies”. I’m thinking that this group has two full albums and all I get is three singles? After this torture, the DJ (DJ Aktion, yes with a “K”) decides to pump up the crowd by playing old school hip hop and R&B cuts. Granted, it got the crowd moving, but I didn’t pay for that. I paid for Floetry. It’s sad how quickly people forgot about that detail when they were shaking their groove thang. Oh, and did I mention that the one backup singer that was there was singing off key and came out with a drink in his hand? I thought he was Michael Jackson for a second he was leaning to the side so much. The total length of their performance was 30 minutes, and I’m being extremely generous with that number. I’m writing all of this to inform any and everyone I can that if you hear of Floetry performing anywhere, PLEASE BE WARNED!! You will not get your money’s worth, and you surely won’t get a better explanation for what’s going on than we did (”I don’t know where she is…she could be at home for all I know. But I’m cool.”). This was honestly one of my favorite groups, but the false advertisement, lack of explanation and professionalism, and Amanda Diva’s audacity to actually attempt to pump a crowd up that didn’t come to see her was way too much for me. I’m filing a formal complaint and caution anyone thinking about attending the “remix” tour.

This Just In: Hear Natalie from Floetry Talk with Wendy Williams