Don't you just love getting those email jokes? Some of them are really hilarious! Some of them are way so stupid, and some of them, you'd like to take the person who sent them and give them a good smack. Like the ones that have been forwarded so many times, you have to scroll down a hundred times past a million email addresses and headers to get to a joke you already read.

So, what am I talking about - these emails "Do's and Don'ts" and why do I think it's important? Basically, it's common courtesy. Have you ever thought of asking your friends or family if they even want you to forward every joke you get? You might be surprised at the number of those who will quietly say, No, they'd prefer not to get it. In many ways, forwarding jokes is as bad as or worse than spam. Also, with all the email virus problems, you should learn to be more careful.

USE BCC - Whether your forwarding email or sending a note out to several people at once, protect your friend's and family's email addresses by using Bcc instead of To. When you use Bcc, the email addresses are hidden, no one can copy them or add them to their address book. I get more email from people I don't know because someone had my email showing and their recipient added them all to their address book. Using Bcc will also prevent the unscrupulous from collecting email addresses to sell to spammers.

USE REPLY, NOT REPLY ALL - If you want to reply to the person who sent you the email, be sure not to send it to everyone who was listed.

UPPERCASE LETTERS - Don't type your entire email in UPPERCASE LETTERS. On the interent, this is considered yelling and no one likes to be yelled at! Only use uppercase letters if you really feel you need to emphasize something. This also applies to chat rooms.

USE A SPELLCHECKER - Not necessarily because you don't know how to spell, but perhaps your brain is thinking faster than your fingers are typing. Don't you always notice spelling errors when your reading emails? Someone else might be "catching your mistakes" too.

USE A SUBJECT - Don't leave the subject line empty! Generally when I get emails with no subject line, they go straight into the trash, especially if I don't recognize the sender.

I SENT YOU AN EMAIL, YOU DIDN'T ANSWER ME FOR DAYS - So? Not everyone checks their email on a daily basis and some only once a week. If you have something that is time sensitive . . . use the phone. Otherwise, learn some patience, people go on vacation, get ill, any number of things that can prevent them from replying immediately.

FORMATTING EMAILS - (Changing the text, using backgrounds and images.) If you must use a background in your email, learn to use one that is light colored or adjust your text color so you can read it. Remember not everyone receives formatted email so some may be getting email from you that is a bunch of jibberish.

SENDING ATTACHMENTS - Common courtesy! Ask before you send an attachment. Stop and think that this person may not have the same programs as you and may not even be able to view it.

FORWARDING - Don't! It's as simple as that . . . don't do it. If it's a great joke, copy and paste it to a new email. Don't just forward it which *includes* all those email addresses from the lazy people who wouldn't take the time to use Bcc and adds another row of >>>>>>. I finally gave up and added an email filter just for forwarded emails. If an email coming to me has Fwd: more than twice in the subject line, it goes right into the trash folder.

BELIEVING WHAT YOU READ - Don't believe everything you read in your emails, most of them can be classified as Urban Legends! Use some common sense before forward it on to some unsuspecting recipient. Do a search for the subject of the email first.

• If it's a virus warning, it had better come from McAffee or Symantec or one of the companies that deal with viruses or don't believe it.
• If it says someone is going to pay you money for sending the email to everyone you know - forget it! Email cannot be tracked that way and no one is going to pay anything anyway.
• If it says a child is lost or kidnapped, go to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and check for hoaxes or just do an internet search for their name.
• Do a search before forwarding virus warnings! (See link above if you don't know how)
• Copy and Paste to new email, don't just randomly forward

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