If you absolutely cannot resist the urge to forward a mail to a colleague or other e-mail contact, please follow these simple pointers on “netiquette”:

• 1. If you don’t think the message is very funny – neither will the recipient.
• 2. The larger it is the longer it takes to send (and receive) it. (Not everyone has super high speed uncapped internet!)
• 3. If you forward a 10 Mb e-mail to 10 people that equates to 100 Mb of outbound traffic.  (Even if you send it as one e-mail with multiple recipients.)
• 4. It is EXTREMELY rude to forward a mail in such a manner that everyone that receives it can see who you are sending it to and who sent it to you.

• — In other words delete the e-mail header, footer and signatures.  (The header is the part that shows who sent the mail to who and other related information.)

• — When you put multiple recipients on the BCC line (you don’t have to use the TO or CC line at all) then none of the recipients can see whom you are sending the mail to.

• 5. Delete any irrelevant information and / or attachments before sending the mail.

• — However, don’t send a mail with only pictures or a blank e-mail body as that will most likely be flagged as SPAM (junk mail)

• — Leave some text (such as the subject line) in the body of the message

• — Don’t send mails with a blank subject line or only the words “Hi” or “Hello” in the subject line – most mail servers block mails like this.

• 6. Make sure you are not accidentally forwarding the mail to a client or other inappropriate recipient.
• 7. If the message is not business related, flag the importance of the message as low as most mail servers will give a lower priority to messages flagged with a “low” priority.
• 8. Only send “junk” mails outside normal business hours so that you don’t interfere with normal business processes.

• — Most companies (including ours) have an in-house mail server (such as Microsoft Exchange)

• — If the outbound mail queue on a mail server is very long then it slows the system and the network down and it can cause delays for all inbound / outbound traffic (such as legitimate business mails).

• — Users on an Exchange server have the ability to schedule (or delay) an outbound e-mail.  Delayed mails (on Exchange connected mailboxes) will still be delivered even if your e-mail client (Outlook) is closed and / or your computer is switched off.

Please review the following screenshots (based on Microsoft Outlook 2007) for instructions on how to implement points 4, 5 and 8 above: