Well a friend of mine posted an “interesting post”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/fearless4jesus/18676.html about internet chain letters. And instead of taking up a huge comment on her blog, perhaps I should inform all of my readers of the extent of my genius (whatever extent being able to search Google gives me…apparently a lot considering how few people can do this… :-) Says she, in part:
“There are tons of e-mail hoaxes out there and they stay there because people don’t know how to recognize them, and they tug at the heart, or use core issues to move people. They don’t hurt anything I guess, but I am tired of them.
“I got an email today that I was pretty positive was made up. It said something about James Dobsin starting this e-mail petition to protect Christian broadcasting. My first thought was, how in the world could an e-mail petition really work? My second thought was, I’ve seen this before.
Fortunately most people that send junk like this don’t have my email address :-) But I’m well aware of the problem, as I work with a lot of people who have no clue. There’s not really an excuse these days, as you can Google search just about anything to find out if there are reliable sources that will vouch for something. It’s time-consuming for me to email everyone I get one of these from (like I said not many, but it still takes time!) to inform them (without insulting them) about the fact that they’re passing on stupid unreliable stuff.
I did a quick Google search just now (how’s that for proof-of–genius-concept? :-) and found some really informative links on the subject:
* “CIAC(Computer Incident Advisory Capability) Hoaxbusters”:http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
(this is a US government-run website…not that you can trust the government about everything, but I do agree with their stance on email hoaxes and chains :-) They tell you how to recognize a hoax and what to do with them.
* “How Chain Letters Really Work”:http://home.flash.net/~bob001/chainletter.htm
This is a great explanation of how those famous “send $5 to everyone on the list below and do a mailing” schemes make a lot of money in donations…but just for the originator! Enlightening if you’re not already aware.
* “The Paradox: Why I hate spam (and email chain letters and pyramid schemes and virus warnings and…)”:http://paradox.homeip.net/~janra/writing/spam.html
Good info…especially the parts about Bandwidth and Cost. It shows how it’s _not_ collectively harmless to send everyone in your address book the same thing and have everyone else repeat the same. It costs money on the Internet, along with commercial spam, and slows things down. By sending stuff like this, _you_ may be helping the internet get slower!
* “Chain Prayers”:http://www.truthminers.com/truth/chain_mail.htm
Quite interesting, and a site I hadn’t seen until now. Specifically debunking Christian Prayer Chain Letters, it give three example quotes from such letters and then provides a six-point analysis of why it’s garbage:
“Third: This is not a good witness. Sometimes God gives us one time opportunities to share with another person. Most of the time He gives us ongoing relationships THROUGH which we share the love and mercy of Christ by both our daily lives and our speech. Relationship building is important because then people can see God working within us, freeing us from sin. Messages like these can have the opposite effect on an unbeliever. It makes us seem foolish for believing that forwarding an email will prove our love for God.
I’ll let you read the other five reasons for yourself.
* “Chain Letters (and Anti-Chain Letters)”:http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/chain-letters.html
At first the information is similar to that provided by the above sites. However, there are some really good links down the page a bit, including a link to some “anti-chain letters” (“this one’s good”:http://www.perry.com/bizarre/antichn.html) and a very large section of “chain mail humor”. There’s some very funny stuff there, for example the ‘”Citation Chain Letter“:http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/citation-chain-letter.html’ (“Dear Fellow Scientist: This letter has been around the world at least seven times. It has been to many major conferences. Now it has come to you…“) and the “‘Why ask Why Chain Letter“:http://bears.ece.ucsb.edu/personnel/astornet/humor/humor7.html’, which asks such things as:
** “Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?”
** “If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?”
** “Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM?”
** “If you’re in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?”
** “Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM?”
** “Why do noses run and feet smell?”
** and, “Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio?”
Don’t worry, I didn’t repeat all of them :-) It’s especially nice since it says at the bottom that it originated in The Netherlands. I like stuff that mentions The Netherlands since it’s the only country I’ve ever been to outside the U.S. :-) There are even more good humor pages at that site, but you probably want to skip the one titled, “With sex all things are possible”. Yes, I realize many of you will read that one just becuase I said not to. If you don’t mind some explicit (but not pornographic) adult topics, it does have a bit of hilarity to be found, but probably isn’t worth the read anyway. Yet there are still those of you who will want to decide for themselves I bet. Curiosity killed the cat, but that saying hasn’t stopped anyone’s curiosity yet that I know of…you’ll have to find the link yourself at least. There’s one more hilarious piece I just read, called ‘”The Gullibility Virus Warning“:http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/gullibility-virus.html’. In part:
Internet users are urged to examine themselves for symptoms of the virus, which include the following:
The willingness to believe improbable stories without thinking. The urge to forward multiple copies of such stories to others. A lack of desire to take three minutes to check to see if a story is true.
T. C. is an example of someone recently infected. He told one reporter, “I read on the Net that the major ingredient in almost all shampoos makes your hair fall out, so I’ve stopped using shampoo.” When told about the Gullibility Virus, T. C. said he would stop reading email, so that he would not become infected.
Of course, forward that one to your friends at your own risk. It’s not my fault if it makes you friendless!
I won’t even discuss virus hoaxes here, I need to get to bed and they deserve a post twice this size of their own (whether I’ll ever write the post…who knows?). Basically, check “Google”:http://www.google.com and your favorite reputable antivirus vendor’s website before passing on any virus warning you receive in email.
