2014 Husbandry Survey

[Jimmy]

Anyone else despairing at the lack of understanding of how email works?

(FERA have sent out a random survey to a generic group email address to which one person 'replied all' to, so we're now all locked into a torrent of emails all proclaiming breaches of data protection, you've broadcast my email address etc, when the only way email addresses have been broadcast is when people reply. )

 

[Heather]

Ah! Just seen this .. all related post.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Anyone else despairing at the lack of understanding of how email works?

(FERA have sent out a random survey to a generic group email address to which one person 'replied all' to, so we're now all locked into a torrent of emails all proclaiming breaches of data protection, you've broadcast my email address etc, when the only way email addresses have been broadcast is when people reply. )

It's totally sad the way people that do not understand the situation immediately jump to the wrong conclusions!

Also totally laughable that the people replying are the one's disclosing their own email address!! (as you said)

 

[Walrus]

hilarious

 

[JohnyP]

It's totally sad the way people that do not understand the situation immediately jump to the wrong conclusions!

Also totally laughable that the people replying are the one's disclosing their own email address!! (as you said)

HANG ON. I was involved in this. To my knowledge NOONE did "reply to all". It was simply the way FERA setup their email list that caused the endless spiral of emails going back and forth. Totally bonkers, but noones fault but FERA

 

[Heather]

I agree.
I never revealed an address. I filled in the requested survey giving bee info, losses, queen situations, honey crops etc etc, and just pressed 'finish' at the end. There were no other email addresses above. Just the .gov one.

Just gave beebase number as asked.

 

[YorkshireBees]

I agree.
I never revealed an address. I filled in the requested survey giving bee info, losses, queen situations, honey crops etc etc, and just pressed 'finish' at the end. There were no other email addresses above. Just the .gov one.

Just gave beebase number as asked.

Don't worry Heather, your email address has not been revealed to anyone if you have not replied to the email and just clicked the link to the survey!

HANG ON. I was involved in this. To my knowledge NOONE did "reply to all". It was simply the way FERA setup their email list that caused the endless spiral of emails going back and forth. Totally bonkers, but noones fault but FERA

I'm afraid the only thing you can blame on FERA is that they didn't send the email from a NO-REPLY email address.

The original guy who replied to the email CC:'d (carbon copied) on it the distribution list and therefore everyone got a copy of his email.

After that anyone replying to his reply would automatically have included the distribution list [email protected] as a CC: by the looks of it.

The people claiming to have had their email address revealed by FERA do not understand how distribution lists work as Ben Jones purposely created the distribution list to hide all email addresses.

Only by replying to the chain of email, which in turn gets distributed to the whole list, does anyone reveal their own email address to the list!

In other words, staying quiet or contacting FERA by some other means or in fact composing an email without the distribution list would have prevented any of this!

 

[Chorlton Honey Bees]

i have had loads of emails too
Never had so many in one day i thought i was very popular after scooping loads of money winning the postcode lottery lol

 

[Edwardking]

Don't worry Heather, your email address has not been revealed to anyone if you have not replied to the email and just clicked the link to the survey!




I'm afraid the only thing you can blame on FERA is that they didn't send the email from a NO-REPLY email address.

The original guy who replied to the email CC:'d (carbon copied) on it the distribution list and therefore everyone got a copy of his email.

After that anyone replying to his reply would automatically have included the distribution list [email protected] as a CC: by the looks of it.

The people claiming to have had their email address revealed by FERA do not understand how distribution lists work as Ben Jones purposely created the distribution list to hide all email addresses.

Only by replying to the chain of email, which in turn gets distributed to the whole list, does anyone reveal their own email address to the list!

In other words, staying quiet or contacting FERA by some other means or in fact composing an email without the distribution list would have prevented any of this!

I think people use the 'reply all' function deliberately - ego dictating that everyone will want to read their reply, see how clever they are, etc. clear signs of insecurity, egoism, arrogance. Email is so easy that mis-use is near impossible.

 

[Heather]

Err.. before you all be so judgemental...
The email began..
[email protected]
Please note that you have been specifically selected (through a statistical randomisation) to participate in this survey and therefore we would ask that you do not forward the link to the survey to any other beekeepers. Any returns received from beekeepers who were not invited to complete the survey will not be included in the data set.

I was asked to fill in a survey on a fera site. I logged into survey and when finished just clicked 'finish'...

Didn't send to all, no ego involved, did not forward -not even an email reply as such.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Apart from all this banter about emails....At first glance I read "HUSBAND survey"
Oooh I thought maybe we ladies are comparing husbands. I must say on looking in I am bitterly disappointed

 

[Skyhook]

Anyone else despairing at the lack of understanding of how email works?

(FERA have sent out a random survey to a generic group email address to which one person 'replied all' to, so we're now all locked into a torrent of emails all proclaiming breaches of data protection, you've broadcast my email address etc, when the only way email addresses have been broadcast is when people reply. )

A complete cock-up by FERA. The idea of them sending out a mass email to a group in such a way that one person in that group, by hitting the wrong button, can launch a torrent of spam, makes me despair. They have an IT department- most private individuals don't.


.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Err.. before you all be so judgemental...
The email began..
[email protected]
Please note that you have been specifically selected (through a statistical randomisation) to participate in this survey and therefore we would ask that you do not forward the link to the survey to any other beekeepers. Any returns received from beekeepers who were not invited to complete the survey will not be included in the data set.

I was asked to fill in a survey on a fera site. I logged into survey and when finished just clicked 'finish'...

Didn't send to all, no ego involved, did not forward -not even an email reply as such.

I was trying to say that as you didn't reply to the original email or any of the other peoples replies you did the right thing.

As I did you just followed the link and filled in the survey. Job done.

Also as myslef you have received all of these following emails as the 1st person to reply, for whatever reason, either hit reply to all or thought he should include the distribution list id in his email.
Basically most will have hit the reply button or reply all and NOT double checked who they were replying to!

Therefore just the same as me, you received all these peoples, sometimes irate, emails.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They have an IT department- most private individuals don't.
.

Well, nowadays, as a Government department, all their IT management will be done by a private contractor such a Jo Jitsu or Crap geminii.
There are two criterion for awarding a government contract:
A) most expensive
B) most inept

 

[Chris B]

Well, nowadays, as a Government department, all their IT management will be done by a private contractor such a Jo Jitsu or Crap geminii.
There are two criterion for awarding a government contract:
A) most expensive
B) most inept

C) your chum from Eton

 

[REDWOOD]

Some random survey when they ask you for your details

 

[Jimmy]

Whilst FERA should take some of the blame for the mistake, the people who sent all the subsequent emails are also accountable for their actions. It didn't take someone with the computing genius of Tim Berners-Lee to see what the problem was.

The actual survey was very badly formatted in google chrome - in the version I completed the tick-box options were overlapping with neighboring questions, making selecting the right one tricky.

 

[dpearce4]

I was trying to say that as you didn't reply to the original email or any of the other peoples replies you did the right thing.

As I did you just followed the link and filled in the survey. Job done.

Also as myslef you have received all of these following emails as the 1st person to reply, for whatever reason, either hit reply to all or thought he should include the distribution list id in his email.
Basically most will have hit the reply button or reply all and NOT double checked who they were replying to!

Therefore just the same as me, you received all these peoples, sometimes irate, emails.

including names, some addresses and some phone numbers, plus some on peoples work emails from what I saw when I read through the replys they all sent.

 

[REDWOOD]

Typical .gov organisation under huge pressures from fat cats who run our country to cut cut cut

 

[Koobra]

Bottom line is FERA should BCC everybody on their email list to protect personal data of beekepeers. Instead they used distribution group, which caused havoc and can be used in a malicious way (spamming, phishing). Not very professional. Hopefully they will learn from it. And disable that distribution group ASAP.