My father-in-law keeps sending glurge and WARNINGS!!! to my husband and me (and about 50 other people). I don’t mind too much (except for the religious stuff) on my behalf, but my husband gets so much mail every day that having to wade through the crap annoys him. He would never mention this to his dad, though.
This last one broke the camel’s back, because I recognized it from snopes.
So I sent him a polite message asking him to please check these messages out before sending them on to so many people. I added the URL for that particular snopes page, and the main URL.
Unfortunately I’m not that good at e-mail, and tend to piss people off even when I think I’m being polite.
So I’m scared that he’s taken offense, answered me, and now hates me.
But damn does it feel good to finally be patronising to him for a change!
I always send the snopes url when it comes to UL or bogus virus warnings. I try to be as nice about it as I can, but I really can’t stand the stuff.
The hardest part is glurge. There’s not much to refute, except to point out that the stories are usually made up just to manipulate your emotions.
But the people sending glurge are usually (to me) overly emotional, and really like those kinds of things. I hate to tell them how cold hearted I really am…
Kind of too late now… but you can always try the “Thank you so much for thinking of us! After receiving your email, I thought I would go and try to find out more about this virus/problem/crisis/legislative bill/whatever. You can feel relieved! I found the following at snopes.com, that says… [yadda yadda yadda]. In fact, I found all of these other urban legends while I was there! One of the things they suggest there, is that any time you hear about recipes/accidents/viruses/problems/so-forth, they say to check there first to make sure it’s not a fake! I’m gonna try to do that from now on, and you might try the same, so we don’t get duped, and we don’t end up looking like Chicken Little or the boy who cried wolf. Thanks again!”
…something like that? Basically avoid telling him he’s an ignerant induhvidual, and say “Hey look what I found, isn’t this a cool way to check?” and make it more like something you’re sharing with him. Otherwise he’ll feel like he’s been pointed and laughed at.
I made up a sort of form letter that more or less says what baglady said, and included the snopes link and a link to a virus hoax tracker. I send it out whenever I get that crap. Which was almost daily, but has now tapered off. It’s especially effective on people who repeatedly send you crap. It’s even more effective when you send it not only to the person who sent you the email, but CC everyone else in the list.
No offense, but I’d pass on ren’s recommendation, just because that sends your e-mail address out to potential spammers. I pretty much handle things the way Baglady does, but only sending to people who I know and care anything about.
My godmother does this – not so much the warnings, but the sentimental netlore and the “send bottle caps/shoestrings/UPC codes/used underwear for charity” crap. She’s new to the 'Net and doesn’t know that practically all of it’s been around for years.
I never know how to respond; she lives across the country and I don’t know her that well, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but my regard for her slips another percentage point with every bit of this junk she sends me. I usually just don’t reply – since I’m usually one of a couple of dozen people on the list; she doesn’t use bcc either :mad: Sigh.
I thought about this, but I don’t know most of the people on the list, and didn’t want to publicly humiliate the man. He is genuinely (albeit misguidedly) concerned for our well-being.
Suo Na, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. When I refute a UL with Snopes, I always CC everyone on the list, because otherwise some of those people will be passing it on themselves!
This is wierd. I was going to post the same thing. My Mom is constantly sending me the same types of e-mails. I replied to one yesterday asking her to please not send them(at least to me) and gave her a link to snopes. I got a reply back from her saying I was rude for asking such a thing and that I was just out to make her feel stupid. I’ve been taken off her e-mail list, so apparently that’ll make her feel better. I know she wants an apology, but I can’t figure out what to appologize for. I asked not to receive those e-mails and she got pissed. How is that my fault? She has a way of inferring the wierdest things from harmless statements. Sorry for the little hijack. Just letting you know this has happened to others.
I send out the link to the legend in question, and have CC’d everyone on the list as well. As long as you are doing it in the polite manner listed above (Baglady, you rock!) I would think there is no embarassment issue.
Also, consider the blind CC.
I used to get these from one friend in particular… After multiple “urban legend” replies, she has finally stopped sending them to me. Sad thing is, I believe she does still send them on to everyone else.