debunking an urban myth in family email

[slag]

My sister recently sent out an email she received from a friend which is one of those stories that is easily debunked with snopes.

Do i send a reply to everyone with a link to snopes and say, good story, but i dont think its true, send just an email to her and let her know the story is not true, or just ignore it and let people think its a good story.

I'm thinking the last option is right.

Thoughts?

 

[mb]

Depends, how stupid is the myth?

 

[blackdogdeek]

i usually send the response with the link to snopes only to my immediate family members instead of all my parents' friends.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

If they're forwarding that crap to me, I am going to reply to everyone, in hopes of embarrassing them so much they never do it again.

 

[Zolty]

be sure to start the email with "You would have to be an idiot to believe this"

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: slag
My sister recently sent out an email she received from a friend which is one of those stories that is easily debunked with snopes.

Do i send a reply to everyone with a link to snopes and say, good story, but i dont think its true, send just an email to her and let her know the story is not true, or just ignore it and let people think its a good story.

I'm thinking the last option is right.

Thoughts?

If the email from your sister only goes to your immediate family, then why not? I would gladly take any opportunity to make fun of my siblings.

 

[Kelemvor]

I reply to everyone on the email and include a note to always check Snopes.com before spamming people with false information.

Most people have taken me off their lists now which is fine by me.

 

[slag]

its immediate family only, about 7 people.. and its a dumb one. Its harmless enough to just leave it alone i guess, but then thats how these myths are kept alive...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bearhunt.asp

 

[hdeck]

i would provide the snopes, but be nice about it since it was family

 

[AUMM]

Originally posted by: hdeck
i would provide the snopes, but be nice about it since it was family

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: slag
My sister recently sent out an email she received from a friend which is one of those stories that is easily debunked with snopes.

Do i send a reply to everyone with a link to snopes and say, good story, but i dont think its true, send just an email to her and let her know the story is not true, or just ignore it and let people think its a good story.

I'm thinking the last option is right.

Thoughts?

that is the first thing i do when i get these email forwards. i find it on snopes and i send the link back to them. if anything, maybe they'll think twice before sending me that crap again.

even my financial advisor sent me some bunk once about ATM machines and calling the police through them. i quickly called him on it as did a lot of other people.

 

[BurnItDwn]

When people send me stupid crap, I am not afraid to tell them "hey you sent me stupid crap."
If they sent it to other people too, then I include the other people so they too know that what they received is just stupid crap.

I don't like spreading of misinformation.

 

[nageov3t]

do you really want to be that guy? delete the email and resume your normal life. no need to come across like a pompous jerk

 

[FoBoT]

i asked my sister to stop sending me spam a few years ago and she stopped emailing me

i think i hurt her feelings, i guess

 

[ShotgunSteven]

I got my first chain e-mail in quite a while, after posting in this thread today. It was regarding THIS.

I found THIS on Snopes while looking for information on the other one, it made me laugh. :laugh:

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

I used to have people who would forward me dumb crap all the time.

Relentless use of the "reply to all" button eventually solved that problem.

Edit: I should mention that I always responded directly to them first.. several times and asked them to stop forwarding things to me before I broke out the nuclear option.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: hdeck
i would provide the snopes, but be nice about it since it was family

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: loki8481
do you really want to be that guy? delete the email and resume your normal life. no need to come across like a pompous jerk

The way in which the reply is worded is key.

"you are dumb, that is false, see Snopes link"
Send like this and you are That guy

"FYI, That is a good story, however, it is just a myth see also Snopes link for more information"
Say something like this and you are helping to prevent further spread of misinformation, without being too much of a pompous jerk.



To be honest, I usually go the pompous route myself though.

 

[Juddog]

I usually reply to all with the link to the snopes article, and list the top part if it's false.

I originally tried flaming whomever sent me the message, but that didn't work out to well (I ended up getting in an argument with someone I didn't even know over e-mail).

A calm explanation that what they sent out was false, sent to everybody on the list, usually does the trick nicely IMHO.

 

[thirtythree]

*shrug* I'd just delete it. I wouldn't want to make my sister feel stupid, and she might. You'd know better than me though.

 

[RiverDog]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
If they're forwarding that crap to me, I am going to reply to everyone, in hopes of embarrassing them so much they never do it again.

I did the same thing with my SIL now we never get this crap. WORKS!!!

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I get a certain amount of satisfaction from pointing out the gullibility of family members....

 

[SoulAssassin]

Reply to all with the link, it took my mom a couple years of me doing this for her to learn. Don't be rude about it, just give them the link and say something like 'check this out for the real story'.

 

[broon]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
Reply to all with the link, it took my mom a couple years of me doing this for her to learn. Don't be rude about it, just give them the link and say something like 'check this out for the real story'.

Reply to all that way no one will forward the link on. If you do this enough, people will investigate before forwarding this junk to their entire mailbox.

 

[jemcam]

I did the "reply all" thing when I first got sick and tired of my Mom sending me that crap. I just said something like "Not true, see here: "snopes.com".

It didn't faze her though so I started sending the link to her every time she did it. She finally got the message.