are you tired of the well-meaning but computer-illiterate sending you more "forward this e-mail to everyone you know: bill gates will donate money to a worthy cause for each recipient"?
i know how to stop 'em.
embarrass them. hugely.
when i used to receive such things, they would invariably include me with everyone else in their address books.
so what i started doing is debunking the incorrect e-mail with a link to the specific page on snopes for greater debunking effectiveness.
then i replied to all.
strangely, people largely forwarding such things to me thereafter. :>
ed
silverwhisper posted on Aug 04, 2006
| views: 313
Comments
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Expendable said on Aug 04, 2006....
I just got the Neiman-Marcus story again where someone asked for the cookie recipe in the restarant and instead of getting charged $2.50 gets charged $250 for it. Totally bogus. There's no Neiman-Marcus Cafe in any of the Dallas stores and they never had a Neiman-Marcus cookie before but people kept asking for it, so they made one. And here's the real ||{1}|| - no charge. -
Zayda said on Aug 04, 2006....
Snopes is one of my favorite sites. -
narbeha1983 said on Aug 05, 2006....
That is a totally great idea. I didn't get your last sentence, did the emails stop? Never heard of this site, gonna give it a try. -
silverwhisper said on Aug 05, 2006....
ex: i hadn't heard that about needless-markup, thanks! super z: i love snopes, but i use it like it use wikipedia: for reference purposes. narbeha: yes, the e-mails stopped. :> ed -
Zayda said on Aug 07, 2006....
There's another site that is just a great as snopes when it comes to "urban legend" emails. But I cannot think of what it is atm, and I'll be damned..I don't fucking have it bookmarked. GRRR -
silverwhisper said on Aug 07, 2006....
meh: snopes does it all, anyway. :> ed -
InterplanetJanet said on Aug 07, 2006....
Silver: I do the same thing (debunking, that is). It has worked like a charm, and people write me individually and thank me for stopping the nonsense. My site of choice, however, is: ||{1}||. IPJ -
silverwhisper said on Aug 11, 2006....
you know, i'm largely unfamiliar w/ that site. ed -
Expendable said on Aug 11, 2006....
Symantec lists a few hoaxes too. There's a ton of urban legend sites that tackle the hoaxes and the tear-jerkers. -
Expendable said on Aug 11, 2006....
Oh - i've been meaning to ask. What did you do to this page? it's like you broke the frame or something. The menu is on top, everything else is below it. -
silverwhisper said on Aug 11, 2006....
how do you mean? it looks to me the same as any other blog entry? wait a sec: what resolution are you using? ed -
Expendable said on Aug 11, 2006....
1024x768, why? -
silverwhisper said on Aug 12, 2006....
i was wondering if that was perhaps part of the reason. the only reason i can imagine for why you're experiencing that issue is that there's just not as much room on your screen as i'm using. the title of this entry is fairly long but it doesn't wrap on my screen. does it on yours? ed