I finally got fed up enough about all the forwarded e-mail that I sent out this letter to everyone in my address book. I seem to have offended a few people. Some of the people praised what I had to say, I even got replies from people it got forwarded to (kind of ironic). Right now the replies are running about 50/50 offended and praise. It was not intended as a flame and it seams that the most offended are a couple of my closest friends. What’s your opinion?
Ive always found it easer to get forgiveness rather than permission.
I guess most people find it easier to just punch that little forward button than to cut and paste. I think these people are probably the low end computer users and have no idea what is actually happening when they send or receive mail.
What is even more annoying, than the eternal forward string, are the e-mailer systems that forward everything as an attachment. You keep opening messages only to find another attachment. If I have to open more than two messages, I usually just shit can 'em. The friends I have who use AOL are notorious for multiple attachments.
Another thing I find very irritating is all the carets and other shit at the beginning of each line in forwarded messages.
Ah well, the evils of technology in the hands of the ignorant.
One complete set of morals for sale to highest bidder, new in box.
I only have access to a computer at work, so I don’t get a lot of Spam, and I never get porno or advertisements (I think IT support filters out a lot of junk.). Thus, I’m probably not as fed up as a lot of y’all are.
I don’t mind getting urban legends, because I enjoy debunking them in return mail.
I usually like the jokes and funny stuff. In fact, I made sure I got on the forward list of people I know who always seem to get jokes and funny pics.
I don’t like the chain letters telling me to forward to 10 people, etc… (Trash Can)
Satan,
You ARE evil…I like it
I have put blocks on a few e-mail addresses and I sent out a similar letter (but a little less confrontational). I just said that my e-mail provider only allowed me a little bit of space, and all that sort of e-mail took it up, leaving me no room for my regular mail. It has stopped almost completely. No one called me on it, they just stopped sending it. Thank God. Since I’m in computers, all I used to get are the fake virus alerts- sometimes 10 a day!
Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Emo Philips (stolen from matt’s webpage)
Mac,
The reason people probobly got offended is that they really think they’re doing you a favor by sending you all that crap. A lot of people don’t realize that the UL e-mails are fake (or the virus ones, for that matter). When you send out an e-mail like that, it makes them feel stupid (as they should) and offended (they may not believe you).
Plus, some people really get the warm fuzzies from forwarding smiles, angels, hugs, etc. When you say “stop sending me this shit!!” they get hurt feelings.
Just my opinion, but I’m with you 100%
“Friends don’t send friends SPAM!!”
Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Emo Philips (stolen from matt’s webpage)
I’m with ya, Mac. After opening my e-mail box one morning and finding 10 forwarded hoaxes, I sent out a mass message directing people to http://www.snopes.com and their “Currently Circulating” link.
Whenever I get a dubious message, I check this web site for hoaxes. My mass message has stopped the forwarding of those messages. Sadly, it has not stopped the forwarding of jokes.
::sigh::
Most common question I ask: “What?”
Most common question I get: “Are you really hearing impaired?”
The only spam I get these days comes from people who have got my email address from other websites. All my friends and my wife’s friends know that if they send me spam they will get a nice large binary core dump in their mail box in return (I can use my companies mail server to send it so it doesn’t tie me up at all).
Also, since I know use dummy email addresses I pretty much never get spam at home anymore.
What more could you expect from somebody who lets people kick him to the head?
Btw, I have never actually had to send a core dump, the mere threat (after asking people not to send me this stuff nicely) is enough to make them stop.
Unfortunately, this is so true. My Mom is a great example. She thinks all of this crap is so cute/funny/alarming/whatever message is being conveyed, and thinks she is being kind by forwarding it. You know, warning me of something terrible or uplifting my day by something cute.
I agree that most of the people that perpetuate this crap are the low-end computer users. Not that they aren’t intelligent, just that they are not computer/Internet savvy.
I hate it too, and try like hell to get out of it, but sometimes the only way to get it stopped is to hurt someone’s feelings. I just judge whether I care if their feelings are hurt and act accordingly.
What I’ve been doing on the rare times that I do pass something around I find amusing is:
C & P the text to a new email form. So nobody sees the SNs of everyone it’s been forwarded to during each forwarding.
AOL allows me to Blind Carbon Copy email. That means that the recipient will only see my name (the sender) and his/her name (the recipient), which certainly reduces the Email Box Jam when folks start Replying to All.
There seem to be different Joke Mail Loops going around. My cousin just HAD to forward to me every joke email she got. And I got it from her about 4 days after the first time I’d seen it. She never had much else to say, so I asked her to send me email at another address I had. This was an address I never used, and every 2 weeks or so, I’d just log on under that sn and delete everything in that mailbox. It saved time.
Thank goodness I had been a disciple of Jan Harold Brunvand for several years before I actually got a computer. Someone sent me a UL about a little kid getting bitten by snakes in a Burger King ball pit, shortly after I found the AOL SDMB. I posted as to whether or not this one was true, because although I’d never heard that particular version, it sounded like a UL. Someone replied with a link to Snopes. I now send Snopes links whenever I get UL’s in my email.
Another good one is called Hoaxkill. They’re fairly new, but what they do is cool. If you get a suspected UL in your email, but can’t find anything to verify it, you can send it to them. They’ll investigate it, and email everyone who is listed on the email you received and debunk it for you. Nice little touch, I thought.
What really grates on my nerves are those “friendship” forwards that tell you to return this to the person that sent this to you, or you aren’t their friend. Ugh. I guess I’m not, then. I can stand manipulative, insecure messages like that, esp. knowign that I’m just one of a list of recipiants.
I had one emailer who would send me evry UL they got. After I sent back my standard form letter explaining what a email hoax is about 6 times, she finally stopped. I LOVE C&P!
I had a very religious friend who would send me Bible verses and other religious-type forwards every sinlge day. I kept telling her that I didn’t have time to read it all, but she didn’t listen. Then, I tried c&ping everything she’d sent me in the last week into a new message with a note saying that I didn’t have time to read it all. She didn’t listen. Finally I just created a folder for her (and a filter so that everything she sent me would go righ tinto it), and I just ignore it. I now have several people being filtered into that folder (including my grandparents, who are sweet but never send me anything but forwards) and I check it now and then to see if anything of interest has slipped through.
