There are differences to using the reply all or bcc features of email. The reply all feature is used when there is a listing of people attached to an email sent to a recipient. The bcc is the blind carbon copy feature of email. It is used when a person sends an email and also wants to copy someone else on it, unbeknownst to the person receiving the email.
When a recipient gets an email with a long list of reply all people added to it, it is easy to write a return message and hit reply all to send the message to everyone already listed on the listing. But there can be disadvantages to using the reply all button for returning an email. It seems to be a convenient way to write back to others who have a similar question in mind. But, this can cause problems though, for certain servers when the listing is characterized by an overly large distribution list.
For example, if a state agency human resources department sends out a letter to remind all of the employees that they need remember a date to sign up for health coverage, there may be hundreds of names on the list. If each member writes back to hr with short questions regarding eligibility, and hits the reply all button, then each member on the list will become a recipient of the email. This is an example where it would be better for the employees not to utilize the reply all option. If hundreds of people received the original email, and each person has a spot on the distribution list, then when they each respond with minor questions and click reply all, the amount of emails that will be generated are mind boggling.
The better option when a sender needs to send a message to hundreds of people is to use the bcc option instead of reply all. This way, the same message will be sent to many people, but only one person will be listed as the recipient. If that person then chooses to reply, he or she is only replying to the sender. This is a more viable option than mistakenly, or purposefully hitting reply all and sending questions to people who may not have the answer to it in the first place, and who were never intended to be responded to after the fact.
Another advantage of the bcc field is that it is, in fact, blind to the recipient. The sender knows who is listed in that field, but the message to the recipient is that the person feels the email is sent to him or her alone. Take the case of a job applicant who is wondering if she got the job applied for or not. If she receives a message that she did not get the job, and finds that she is listed with a dozen or more other people, who she has never heard of, she knows that it is just a mass rejection letter that she is receiving. She may look over the listing, and feel a certain amount of bad will, since her name is also available for public view, in the list of everyone who did not make the cut for the job. If the employer had just cut and pasted all the names of the people it was planning to reject, and used a bcc list instead, each person getting the rejection email would feel the rejection was more personally delivered. It offers the anonymity that a person rejected for a position would want, and it just makes good sense.
Source: www.readbud.com
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