How do you get people to stop sending you urban legends and mindless glurge?
I’ve tried responding with links to Snopes, but I’ve been called a spoilsport and heartless (you know, 'cause I actually check facts and stuff).
I’ve tried asking them to stop, and short of blocking their e-mails entirely, they insist on continuing (“I just couldn’t resist sending you this!”) And sometimes they post to unmoderated e-mail echoes, so I’d have to block the entire list.
I mean, really - e-mail petitions don’t work. Everybody knows this. Responding with, “Well, it can’t hurt!” is fucking stupid. I’m glad it makes you feel better, but if I want to actually accomplish something and not make some hollow gesture, I’m going to actually pick up a phone or write a letter. And although I’m sure you’re trying to be helpful by sending me some long e-mail about how dangerous it is to microwave water with a spoon in the cup, or microwave food wrapped in Saran Wrap, but if I respond with a Snopes link that says exploding water and carcinogenic plastics are possible but highly unlikely, responding with “better safe than sorry” doesn’t really convince me that I’m going to scald my face or get cancer.
My mom used to send me all that kind of stuff. I would just send it all right back to her. If she said anything about it, I’d say, “oh, I didn’t remember which one of them said ‘send this back or you’ll have bad luck’ so I sent them all.”
On my list of friends, I found that the Snopes links eventually worked. It took a year or two, but finally everyone stopped sending urban legends and e-mail petitions. I’ve also sent long, eloquent replies to the Anne Graham e-mail.
Eventually people realize that I’m more trouble than it’s worth, and quit sending me stuff.
Except for glurgle. Some of my close friends like glurge, and I haven’t got the heart to tell them that I’m a heartless bitch, and really don’t get emotional over an e-mail that’s been forwarded god-knows-how-many-times to tell me what a wonderful woman I am.
Our receptionist at work is particularly bad about forwarding glurge and “This out to make you outraged” e-mails, such as the “Don’t go to the malls on Halloween” warning. I spend about 5 minutes of research on Snopes to find the link to the appropriate page and “Reply to All” with a comment like, “This one’s been going around for years.”
I don’t get any more of the e-mails from her (my main objective), and just maybe a few more people now realize that just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t necessarily make it true.
I’m not trying to be sanctimonious (after all, every once in a while the glurge turns out to be true), but, damn, I’m tired of getting those e-mails.
I’m also probably known as a fun-spoiling sonuvabitch.
I once replied to a ‘send this email onto 10 people or you’ll get bad luck’ email by hitting reply to all and a note with something to the effect of ‘I’m superstitious and pressed for time.’
I have a friend who used to do this all the time. I’d e-mail back pointing out why whatever he’d just sent me (usually ludicrously anti-Bush propaganda) was stupid and asking him nicely to stop sending me that crap. Of course, he didn’t, so I finally snapped, called him up, and tore a strip off his hide. Since I almost never get angry in person, my mini-tirade apparently shocked some sense into him. Mind you, this only worked because we were close enough to curse each other out without damaging the friendship, but damn it felt good. My clutter-free inbox felt pretty good, too.
This same friend was hanging out at my house recently, and spent several minutes with the newspaper, carefully drawing little Hitler moustaches on Bush and all the congresspeople who voted for the war on Iraq. The expression on his face when I told him I supported the war on Iraq was priceless.
Last time I got a warning of a virus or some other assinine thing, I sent a reply to all saying basically, “It’s okay. No need to panic or worry. I looked it up on Snopes and it’s just a hoax.” Then I put in the link for Snopes. The guy who sent the e-mail must have been so embarrassed by knowing that everyone got this message and knew he was wrong, cause I haven’t gotten any of those stupid e-mails in a while. Or I’m just off the distribution list. Either way, I stopped getting the junk.
Of course, my brother is downright mean with this. He’ll basically tell people (with Reply All) that not only is it a hoax, but any trained monkey with internet access could look it up on Snopes in ten seconds and not waste everyone’s bleeping time with such mindless blank.
Just this week, my aunt sent me the three words that end in -gry post. I sent back the URL to Unca Cecil’s column, and didn’t even get a ‘thanks’ out of her.:rolleyes:
I’m a fan of the reply all with the message: “Who are you and why are you sending me this crap?”
But that only works when you someone else on the forward list has picked up your name and used it as part of the list. When it’s someone you know…I’d go with reply all, and a comment about it not being true along with the appropriate link to snopes. It may not stop the sender, but it just might keep people from forwarding it (to me).
Seriously though, I always check them out and respond as soon as I can, particularly virus hoaxes; a year or so back, someone at one of the companies where I support the IT proudly told me how he had saved my time by deleting Sulfnbk.exe from all the machines.
It is, though, a fight that we will never see the end of.
I’m not big on the reply-all, at least not at first. In my experience it’s sufficient to reply to the originator (or forwarder) of the offending email without dragging in the element of public embarrasment, which I find mean-spirited in all but the most egregious cases.
A polite note like “Hey, this is snopes, it’s a great site where you can find out if things like this are true. I checked this one out, and it isn’t, so you can stop worrying. Just thought you’d like to know. Cheerio.” will do the trick without rubbing their face in it.
Of course if they persist, I can see the desire to elevate. I can’t imagine someone continuing to send you crap after they have been clearly informed that you have no desire to read it. I would say that in this case, you have a dense-acquaintances problem that goes beyond email ettiquette.
Basically, people are just fucking stupid, fucking gullible, and fucking timewasting.
Despite the fact that they have been using email/internet for at least three-plus years, they still don’t have a fucking clue about half of what is going on with it. (And I shit you not - on a tangent - a 29 year old TV journalist who just started working with us from the UK had never even heard of MSN or MSN messenger/instant messaging. For a news journalist, someone who is supposed to be informed at least about the major trends of today’s technology and digital lifestyle, I find that sadly deficient).
Most of the lame, fuckwitted pieces of shit that cram my inbox are at least two or three years old on Snopes. I am STILL getting educated, professional associates sending me the Bill-Gates-will-give-you-250 dollars crap.
I still meet (English native speakers) who have never heard of “spam” or don’t understand what it is, except for canned meat.
Frankly, though I am forced to proceed with politeness and patience due to not wanting to alienate about fifty percent of the people I am required to correspond with, clueing them up with Snopes is about as effective as mopping up the Atlantic Ocean with one small bath sponge.
As long as there are middle-aged female administrative assistants with kountry kitschy kultural orientations, there will always be glurge.
Can’t stop it. Never will. We’ll sooner see spam come to an end than stopping some 45 year old secretary from South Carolina from sending an e-mail about a boy who was rescued from a fire by Jesus.
I used to Reply All with the Snopes link, and kept getting someone from the peanut gallery replying all with “you’re an asshole” or something. Since I’m trying to avoid Spam, that clearly wasn’t working.
Now, I Reply All with a link to the Nieman Marcus cookie recipe. Every time. The results have been spectacular.
