Email rant

valanhb

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Rant starting now…

WHY do people continue to perpetuate these false horror stories via email? :arg: I have replied to the worst offenders (my fatherâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s new wife, and my sister) with links to Snopes that refute the stories. But yet, I still get them. And while some of them do have good morals even if false (i.e. women need to be careful in a dark parking lot, even if there wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t a rapist hiding in the back of some womanâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s car), most are just stupid. Barb (Dadâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s wife) sent one today about aspartame poisoning, and how it mimics MS, systemic lupus, tinnitus, fibromyalgia, ADD, ADHD, Gulf War Syndrome, caused birth defects, grand mal seizures and other neurologic disturbances. Seriously, one thing causes all of that, they know about it and itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s still legal?
Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m no doctor, but that doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t even make sense. Worst thing is that my sister, who is apparently much more gullible than I ever thought, told me about this earlier and told me to stop drinking diet soda because itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s poison if itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s over 86 degrees. Seriously people – SNOPES! USE IT!

And the stupid chain letters. My parents were smart enough to not allow us kids (who were gullible enough to believe them) from forwarding the old fashioned, snail mail chain letters. So why is it that I still get so many from my father and sister on a weekly basis??? OK, so the ones saying that I mean a lot of them are nice, even if Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve seen it 1000 times. But Bill Gates ainâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t gonna send you $50,000; a little boy with cancer wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be cured if itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s forwarded to a million people, the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe (no matter how good the cookies are) didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t cost anyone $10,000, a miracle wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t happen to you at 2:00 if you forward an email to 15 people, nor will you have bad luck for 20 years if you donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t.

I swear, the email programs should all come with an Email for Dummies message.
 

weldrwomn

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I agree! Let's start a chain letter telling people that they will have bad luck if they keep sending chain letters to people! I especially despise some of the more racisist emails that I occasionally get....
 

chawknz

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My mom sends me these types of emails all the time, but I don't have the heart to tell her that they are bogus. I did send the link to Snopes recently, so I hope she'll use it soon.


No, Bill Gates does NOT want to send me 1000 or I will die in 10 minutes.
 

strange_wings

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Actually it can be that dangerous for some people, though other foods are too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonurics

Many foods and candy containing aspartame now have a warning on them.
And it does bother other people. Studies have been done - but nothing has really been done (aside from the warning being added).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

It's a migraine trigger for me, and sucralose results in horrible nausea and overall malaise if I have enough of it over a period of time.


So while the emails may be somewhat exaggerated there is some truth to it.
 

h~chan

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Ugh, I HATE those dumb chain letters.. especially the ones that are like "You'll die in your sleep tonight if you don't forward this to 20 people in the next five minutes!!!" Shut up! I read it and deleted it, and I'm still alive. So stop!
 

weldrwomn

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Originally Posted by chawknz

My mom sends me these types of emails all the time, but I don't have the heart to tell her that they are bogus. I did send the link to Snopes recently, so I hope she'll use it soon.


No, Bill Gates does NOT want to send me 1000 or I will die in 10 minutes.
You don't know that you won't die in the next 10 minutes...Maybe that is how some of these myths were perpetuated...if you send an email to a million people saying that they are going to die in the next 10 minutes, you might actually get it right for a handful of people.
 

clixpix

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Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

You don't know that you won't die in the next 10 minutes...Maybe that is how some of these myths were perpetuated...if you send an email to a million people saying that they are going to die in the next 10 minutes, you might actually get it right for a handful of people.
Yeah, how guilty would you feel if you sent this on to someone, and they chose that moment to die? You'll go to your own grave blaming yourself!
 

alleygirl

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Most of my friends and family know not to send these to me anymore. I was very blunt when telling them to stop


When I do occasionally get one I just delete it unopened.
 

rapunzel47

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Yep. We have two friends in particular who send these things aaaaaaaaaalll the time. Rob was pretty direct with both of them. The result was that [1]K stopped sending them to him, but still sends them to me, and when I get one from her, I just roll my eyes and dump it; and [2] T is now pretty good about checking Snopes, but does slip up from time to time, and is always apologetic when Rob or another of his correspondents sends the Snopes link.

The other thing about these things is the bandwidth that's used in sending "to everyone in your address book!!!!!" How many people are in your address book? ...times how many in each of theirs? ...ad infinitum. It's just irresponsible on all counts.
 

rockcat

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Oh boy, I agree with all of you! What about the religious ones? I AM a Christian, but I don't think it's right for me to "test" others by sending an email that guilts people into sending it on. I have no problem with an inspirational email. I DO have a problem when I'm told that I must be ashamed of God if I don't forward it.

My Dad sends me a lot of these. I would love to find the wording to get him to stop without hurting his feelings. Suggestions???
 

rapunzel47

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One thing that I'll give my friend T, referenced above, is that when he sends one of those that have a guilt trip at the end, he removes the guilt trip prior to sending it, and says that he has done so. Since he almost always includes the person he received the piece from in his distribution, there is less necessity for those edits these days, as some people, at least, seem to be getting the idea and doing it themselves.
 

carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by Rockcat

...What about the religious ones? I AM a Christian, but I don't think it's right for me to "test" others by sending an email that guilts people into sending it on. I have no problem with an inspirational email. I DO have a problem when I'm told that I must be ashamed of God if I don't forward it....
I'm so glad to hear you say that! You've restored my faith in people of faith.
 

lsanders

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Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

I agree! Let's start a chain letter telling people that they will have bad luck if they keep sending chain letters to people!
There's a parody, something similar to your suggestion:

Hello, and thank you for reading this letter. You see, there is a starving little boy in Baklaliviatatlaglooshen who has no arms, no legs, no parents, and no goats. This little boy's life could be saved, because for every time you pass this on, a dollar will be donated to the Little Starving Legless Armless Goatless Boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen Fund. Remember, we have no way of counting letters sent and this is all bull. So go on, reach out.

Send this to 5 people in the next 47 seconds. Oh, and a reminder-if you accidentally send this to 4 or 6 people, you will die instantly.

Thanks again!!


People at my old office used to forward crap like this ("real" ones, though) all the time- are people so dumb that they think emails can be tracked or every dying little kid wishes to get the most emails sent? I had a reputation as being the one who'd call people on this stuff- one guy sent something around about all the bad stuff Muslims have done over the course of history and basically justified why we should hate them.
Oh yeah, that didn't go over with me.

And the sappy poems about friendship....I always get those from the people who never send me actual emails, just forwards and it's like- if we were really such good friends, maybe you could send me a real email instead of these mass mailings.
 

mews2much

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I get a bunch of junk mail too. I can not drink anything diet because it makes me very sick. One sip gives me a severe Migraine. The Dr even told me the fake sugars are not healthy. I delete all those bs mails. I got a email asking for donations for some one dying from Leukemia and it was fake. My Husband has Leukemia and that made me so mad.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by valanhb

I swear, the email programs should all come with an Email for Dummies message.
i agree. i get these from teachers at school - they'll forward some weird warning [the last one was about the govt removing 'In God We Trust' from the new dollar coins, & we should refuse to use them in protest] to the entire staff... i'll go on snopes, & do a reply all w/the link showing it's false [which it almost always is!]
 

rockcat

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Originally Posted by rapunzel47

One thing that I'll give my friend T, referenced above, is that when he sends one of those that have a guilt trip at the end, he removes the guilt trip prior to sending it, and says that he has done so. Since he almost always includes the person he received the piece from in his distribution, there is less necessity for those edits these days, as some people, at least, seem to be getting the idea and doing it themselves.
Thanks! I actually do that if I send it on! As far as including my dad in the forward... I don't think he notices. LOL! He is 74 years old though.
 

sarahp

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My SIL used to pass on all sorts of spam, until she started getting replies from both DH and I (independently of each other) showing her pages proving its falsehood. So she either doesn't send them to us anymore, or she's finally realised they're all false


What was funny was that she'd also send the "a small legless, armless, goatless child needs your help, and for each 50 friends you send it to, he'll receive one goat" type emails. So she'd kind of make fun of herself, then keep sending all the spam


Originally Posted by lsanders

And the sappy poems about friendship....I always get those from the people who never send me actual emails, just forwards and it's like- if we were really such good friends, maybe you could send me a real email instead of these mass mailings.
Ohhhhh I know!!!! I HATE them! Do the people who send them really sit there waiting to see responds and therefore who REALLY cares about them?? I also wonder why they don't just send emails saying hi...

Isn't it funny though that nobody ever owns up to doing it, but everyone knows multiple people who do it?
 

rapunzel47

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You know the thing that's bugging me lately about these emails? How many of them are in gi-bloody-normous fonts, bolded and italicized and 48 colours! I know I can hit edit and take all that
out of it before reading it, but it really irritates me that it's necessary. What's wrong with regular type that I can read without making my eyes bleed? Those are all useful/neat features, but sparingly, please?
 
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valanhb

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I should probably clarify a little about my rant. I'm sure she was trying to be helpful, but since I'm actively going through testing to see if I have MS, to get an email that is BS about brain lesions (that I have seen on the MRI) being mimiced or produced because I drink 1 can of diet coke/day or prefer Sweet n Low in my 1 cup of coffee is kind of insulting. I'm not saying aspartame is good for you, or that it doesn't cause seriously bad reactions in some people, but to say much less actually believe that it causes everything it says in that email is nothing short of ludicrous. I thought that people had figured out long ago that just because you read it on the internet or get it in an email doesn't mean it's true.
 

jcat

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I haven't gotten one of those for at least three years, and the culprit was my youngest nephew, then 9 or 10, who stopped when I replied with, "Sounds like
to me!"

I guess most of the people who have my email address in their address book are cynics, or figure I'm too much of one to actually read more than the first line.
 
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