EMAIL FACTS OF LIFE
FOR NET-NEWBIES AND
LESS-SOPHISTICATED USERS
1. Big companies don't do business with email chain letters.
Bill Gates/Microsoft is not giving away $1000 and Disney is not
giving away a free vacation to anyone on a chain-email list.
2. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks.
You can now relax!
There is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true."
Furthermore, even if someone did say in the message, four
generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit",
that does not actually make it any more true.
3. 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 insist on believing the kidney-theft ring stories,
please see: http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa062997.htm
A quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued
requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward
to tell their stories. None have."
That's "NONE," as in "ZERO".
Not even your friend's-cousin's-friend came forward.
4. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe.
You can get a copy of the rumor recipe at:
http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html
Then, if you make the recipe and decide the cookies are truly
awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on. (But I hear they stink.)
5. We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy,
irritate co-workers, gross-out bathroom stall neighbors, 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 light bulb.
6. Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain
plutonium that went to particulation over the eastern seaboard,
do you REALLY think this information would reach the public
ONLY by way of an AOL chain-letter?
7. There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never,
ever, ever forward any email containing any virus warning
unless you first confirm it at an actual site of an actual
company that actually deals with viruses. Instead, try:
http://www.symantec.com/
[ And even then, don't forward it. ]
8. If your CC: list is regularly longer than the actual content
of your message, you're probably going to be punished eternally.
(Ever heard of BCC:? If not, LOOK IT UP!!)
Every CC: list winds up as a SPAM list sooner or later.
9. If you're using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write email,
TURN OFF "HTML encoding." It sends both TEXT and HTML and can
triple the size of any message you send. Only newbies have HTML
in messages. The rest of us get "mailbox full" because of them.
Also...:
Those on Unix shells can't read it and won't care enough to save
the attachment or view it with a web browser since you're likely
just forwarding a copy of the Cookie Recipe anyway.
10. If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation
message from a friend of a friend of 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.
Spammers love to receive all those new addresses...
ALSO, if something has gone around THAT many times, we've
probably already seen it too often. It's only new to you newbies.
Indexes to my other articles and ebooks
may be found on my websites:
Abintra Press!
and
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