Tips on Forwards

Personally, I rarely ever forward anything. However, some people feel that they must forward every joke, scam, worm or virus warning they receive. Still others do some "screening" to post only those that they feel are "important." I'd like to take a minute, you just sit right there... I'll tell y'all a story about forwards... well... okay... sorry... some tips about forwards.
Tips on forwarding scam/virus/worm warnings:

1. Always check the validity before you forward.
   Would you stand-up in front of a group of people and proclaim that something is true? What if you didn't know if it was true? By forwarding, you are doing that and putting your name "on-the-line" as saying what you are forwarding is factual. Most forwards have basis in fact, but are largely false, exaggerated and/or misleading.
   
1. Best way to check: Search, search, search.
• One email warning I receive frequently is regarding the "809 area code scam!"
  
• For this example, I simply looked in wikipedia for the 809 area code. I did this quickly by keying "wiki 809 area code" into Google which lead me to the following information:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_809#The_809_scam_spam_.28email_forward.29
• I picked "809 area code" to search for because it seemed like something that wouldn't be in most web pages except if they were talking about this particular scam. Often when doing this type of fact checking on an email, I will simply copy a line of the email which seems to be something that wouldn't appear elsewhere (a particular "fact" for instance that "doesn't seem right"). I copy that pasted line into Google and there's often a link right to a page where somebody has already confirmed or busted the "myth."
  
• Check snopes.com.
  They are a big "mythbuster" site that has many of the variations of mutations of emails that have been floating around for 10-15 years on the Internet. Likely, if you found a really common email forward/myth/mutation... it will end up showing up in your search through google with a link to snopes.com.
  
2. If it's true... and you feel you must forward to inform:
   
1. Respect the people that came before you and remove other people's email addresses.
   Many people try to limit public exposure of certain email addresses to reduce spam. By leaving their email address in the email, it may end up in hundreds of thousands of email inboxes in a matter of days. Any one of them, if infected with many kinds of malware, could be used to harvest those email addresses for spam receipt by "zombie" or "botnet" infected computers.
2. Respect the people that you're sending to... Consider using BCC.
   BCC is an acronym for "Blind Carbon Copy." Emails do not require any addresses on the "To" line to work. Instead, place all of your recipients on the BCC line when sending forwards and/or when sending to groups of people who may not know one another's email addresses. Taking this step prevents the people who receive your forward/email from needing to remove email addresses when forwarding.
3. Clean it up
   If it's important enough to forward, it should be important enough for you to clean-up.
   
1. Fix the subject line
• Correct the subject line to include only the correct information. Forwards often do not have "good" subject lines. The subject line of an email should reflect the subject of the email. If you're changing the subject, use "WAS:" to include the previous subject line. This helps email clients like Outlook when they try to thread messages into conversations.
  
2. Fix formatting problems
• Format the text consistently and remove non-essential formatting such as italics (should be used for emphasis only and never for more than a single paragraph) and bold (should be used for drawing attention only and never for more than a single line).
3. Fix spacing issues
• Remove hanging footers from email services and anti-virus programs
• Remove extraneous blank lines (multiple end-line characters that make the email longer than it should be.
  

Taking these simple steps serves to make the Internet (and the small corner of it that so many people use called "electronic mail") a safer and more pleasant place.

I hope these tips help everyone who might read them.