This page is a resource for anyone who's ready to gain a little more wisdom about what's real and what's not on the Internet. To really consider yourself a good "citizen" of the Internet, you need to understand these things.
Most of the action on my site is now in my blog and my tumblelog. I invite you to visit!
This page is a resource for anyone who's ready to gain a little more wisdom about what's real and what's not on the Internet. To really consider yourself a good "citizen" of the Internet, you need to understand these things.
If an e-mail tells you to indiscriminantly relay it to others, don't!
If an e-mail is just so funny/touching/important that you want to send it to all of your friends, don't!
If you receive an e-mail with an attachment that you weren't absolutely expecting-- even if you think you know who sent it or it simply looks like a harmless image or music file-- don't open it!
To understand the reasons for these rules, read what you find below. For extra good karma, explain the rules to whoever sent an offending message to you, or at least provide them the link to this page.
Original author unknown.
Big companies don't do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. MTV will not give you backstage passes if you forward something to the most people. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true." Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit," does not actually make it true. Any teacher who would tell their class to send chain mail for any purpose does not understand the Internet. And the person that wrote "two weeks later I received a check for $24,870" is sitting back and laughing at all the people that believed his comment.
There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. If you are hell-bent on believing the kidney-theft ring stories, please visit here. And I quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell their stories. None have." That's "none" as in "zero." Not even your friend's cousin.
Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy. Then, if you make the recipe and decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.
We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate co-workers and creep out people on an elevator. We also know exactly how many engineers, college students, Usenet posters and people from each and every world ethnicity it takes to change a lightbulb.
If the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter?
There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever forward any e-mail containing any virus warning unless you first confirm that an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with viruses. And even then, don't forward it. We don't care. And you cannot get a virus from a flashing Instant Message or e-mail, you have to download....ya know, like, a FILE! [E-mail attachments are files-- see The Third Rule of E-Mail, above.]
If your cc: list is regularly longer than the actual content of your message, you're probably going to Hell.
If you're using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write e-mail, turn off the "HTML encoding," Those of us on Unix shells can't read it, and don't care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web browser, since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe anyway.
If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6 months. It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the '>' that begin each line. Besides, if it has gone around that many times we've probably already seen it.
Craig Shergold (or Sherwood, or Sherman, etc.) in England is not dying of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their business cards. He apparently is also no longer a "little boy" either.
The Make a Wish Foundation is a real organization doing fine work, but they have had to establish a special toll free hot line in response to the large number of Internet hoaxes using their good name and reputation. It is distracting them from the important work they do.
If you are one of those people who forwards anything that promises "something bad will happen if you don't," then something bad will happen to you if I ever meet you in a dark alley. This includes prayers for "good luck," as the Bible is not a luck book.
Women really are suffering in Afghanistan [although as of this update in November 2001, the Taliban is currently getting its ass kicked], and PBS and NEA funding are still vulnerable to attack (although not as of this writing) but forwarding an e-mail won't help either cause in the least. If you want to help, contact your local legislative representative, or get in touch with Amnesty International or the Red Cross. As a general rule, e-mail "signatures" are easily faked and mean nothing to anyone with any power to do anything about whatever the petition is complaining about. (P.S. There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow long distance companies to charge you for long distance when using the Internet.) Bottom Line ... composing e-mail or posting something on the Net is as easy as writing on the walls of a public restroom. Don't automatically believe it until it's proven false...ASSUME it's false, unless there is proof that it's true.
Got it?
Good.
Now, forward this message to ten friends and you will win the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes... NOT!
Most of the action on my site is now in my blog and my tumblelog. I invite you to visit!
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