Today I have experienced an email phenomenon that has likely affected us all, but had yet to be classified until now.

It starts innocently enough when you email someone a question and they reply only by adding someone else to the CC list. This part doesn't worry you at all because you assume that CC'd person is the expert on the subject and will be able to provide you a better answer. The first sign of trouble is when that expert replies only by adding yet another person -- or even multiple people -- to the CC list. At this point, your chances of actually receiving a reply have dropped off significantly. The supposed expert has either shrugged off your question onto someone else less knowledgeable or wasn't an expert after all and has started the process anew by picking a new "expert".

At this point, you have what I call an email snowball. The email keeps growing bigger and bigger as more people are CC'd, but, since the sense of individual responsibility to reply is inversely proportional to the number of people in the CC list, the mail thread will eventually just melt away and leave no trace of an answer to your question. Beware of the email snowball.