I want you to know I read every issue that comes out. Sadly, I haven't been subscribing all that long. The front page "question of the week" is my favorite part -- I always seem to learn something new there.

And yet, sadly, as part of answering his question, I'm forced to mock. That's right. This isn't just a Q&A. This is a QM&A (Question, Mock, and Answer). First, the question:

Unfortunately, I have not run across anything that deals with an issue that has long bugged me.

I, like many others, serve as a central hub to forward useless but humorous items on the net. Someone in my group of 20 or 30 buddies sends me a "funny" and I in turn forward it to everyone in my group. Sadly, the person who originally sent the item is in my "group" so they get a copy of the very thing they just sent to me. The only thing I know to do is to click on the group which opens it in the address header and then edit out the person who originally sent the email.

So my question is: Is there an easier way?

And now, the mock.

Yes, Dean, there's an easier way. Don't send that garbage out. To that end, I invite you to read my seminal piece on the matter, "When it comes to email forwarding, sharing isn't always caring", at http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200509/00001640001.html.

OK, so for some reason, I also feel the need to be marginally helpful. Because I hate friends and family spam so much, I'm not going to go to nearly as much effort to give you a complete answer as I might otherwise. That said, there's an add-on product that might help, from a company called MAPILab. They have a mailing list services component of their $24 MAPILab Toolbox product. Given that MAPILab Toolbox comes with a pile of other goodies, you'll probably find this helpful no matter what.

Now, stop sending that crap!

For more than 20 years, David Gewirtz, the author of Where Have All The Emails Gone? and The Flexible Enterprise has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and can be reached via email at david@zatz.com.