I just received another e-mail "chain letter" and finished reading the post about massive numbers of Hummers being hidden...and I got to thinking....do you see yourself as a promoter or encourager of these things....or do you see yourself as a voice of reason who tries to dispel such things. Myself....I look at the potential for harm. Around work, I occasionally participate in the "rumor mill" with two caveats....if it about a person, always do it with them around to hear the original comment by me, then, after a good laugh, I tell them I am kidding...if it is about an event, I only do it if no one will be identified or get into trouble. Otherwise, I work hard at dispelling rumors. So much so, many people I work with come to me to ask if something is true, since I typically find out. The e-mail to me (and a whole buch of others) I replied to all advising them it was incorrect and told them where they could find the truth. I find myself doing this quite frequently. I used to just delete them, now I feel it is my duty to reply with the truth or a differing idea. Hey, they wrote me, I should be able to write back. BTW, the e-mail today was about the muslim christmas stamp and how we should boycott it. This particular issue is from 2001 and it isn't as it sounds (snopes.com) For those of you who pass along e-mails or tales...if it isn't true...you are either hurting someone or passing along ignorance. I wonder how many people who would never "tell tales" face to face but forward this stuff without thinking. Maybe I should use the word gossip...same thing.
I do what I can to dispel such things without being a jerk about it. I'm in I.T. and a Math major, so I know what a problem they can be.
I am generally a promoter of reason... For such things, I try to put myself in the shoes of Penn & Teller on their Showtime show Bullsh*t... debunkers of fake science, baseless illogical misconceptions and outright lies that people want to believe... basically, Bullsh*t. .
Schmika: I agree 100%. Much as I love the Net, the Dumbing Down of America and the Net do not a promising marriage make. The Net has magnified deception and greed a hundredfold in the course of "democratizing" it concurrent with democratizing hard information and worthwhile ideas. If the average IQ by definition is 100, who can be surprised at what many will believe?
Quite frankly, I just don't give a damn. I pretty much don't believe anything I read on the internet/e-mails anyway...
That can be just as dangerous in the opposite sense...reminds me of "I don't believe anything I hear and only 1/2 of what I see." The 'net can open your eyes to a lot of things. By having the attitude that you don't believe anything...starts making you real cynical. I like Ronald Reagan...Trust...but verify! B) <_<
heh, last time someone sent me the "Boycott Pepsi! They're a bunch of commie bastards who took "Under God" out of the pledge on a can of Pepsi!" e-mail I sent them one of the 'show this to a friend' linkers to about thirty different sites busting the e-mail myth. chain letters in general bother me. chain letters that make people look like wooly idiots bother me even more
In the beginning, i just replied to the sender as a kind of "psst..that's wrong ya' know!" Now I "reply all". On this last one, one of the recipients "replied all" and told the original poster to ask how to send blind copies so that everyone wouldn't see their address. Kinda gave me a chuckle.
It always baffled me why hundreds of lines of forwarded headers usually show up in those things. What I've sometimes done is pick out all the From: lines to isolate those who supposedly resent the thing, and fire them a fairly stock rant about chain letters and why didn't you check with Snopes first and do you *really* want to have your ISP yank your account permanently, etc etc. A couple of times I've gotten flat-out denials from people about sending it at all, so maybe a bunch of that stuff is falsified... . Still, CCing abuse@ various ISPs generally gets people to wake up. . _H*
I like that it's proactive. I just hit the delete button and hope I get rid of it before all the bad luck sticks to me.
I'm just disappointed that this topic did not have an associated poll, especially here at PriusChat. The only thing I pay attention to on the internet are the polls, whatever the venue, especially here at PriusChat.
Jack and Squid are the poll guru's. I've never tried to make one. I'm afraid if I do, I will get hooked and do it too much. You're missing a lot only going to polls. I use the subject line to pique my interest.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: "You rang....?" [Broken External Image]:http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/photos/photo_004601.jpg
Aw dude, c'mon, with some of the topics you put up, a poll would be secondary, and really drive the point home! Besides, there's nothing wrong with doing it too much is there? h34r:
True, true... It's just that I place a lot of value on my time (insert hearty laughter from PC members here), and the last thing I want to do, is spend it upon dumb e-mails. However, I do usually read them before I delete them, so at least, whatever it was, will generally reside somewhere in the back of my mind such that if some circumstance arises as to where it's relevant, I can sort of have some input, and just, in general, be aware of it.
