The "I Hate E-Mail Forwards" Thread

I'm not crazy about those email forwards either but I feel bad to say to a friend please don't send them. I think they'll get upset and don't want that to happen, but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be and I find it hard to read all that stuff.

This arrived in my inbox around the holidays. I think it's appropriate here.

My mother in law is probably--no, definitely the worst about forwarding forwarded emails. During the election, it was much worse than it is now, but she's still pretty bad about it. And I swear to you, she believes everything she reads. I've argued the points about how those emails are almost NEVER signed. I've also argued the points about how they will often use words like today , tomorrow, next week or things like that and how given the way the email is forwarded (usually for years and years) who knows what that tomorrow originally was. The ones I find most offensive are probably the blessing ones. You know the type--you'll get good luck or blessings within the next 24 hours, but only if you forward this email on to 10 friends. And there's always that layer of guilt, too. If you don't pass it on, you must not care about your friends.

I really, truly, madly, deeply loathe forwarded emails. I am to the point now where I delete them all without reading.

I used to feel bad about the idea of telling my MIL about not sending them until I told her repeatedly about how viruses can be sent with those emails but she keeps on sending them! I figure that if she is allowed to not give a crap about possibly sending a virus to me, I can not care about offending her by asking her to not send the emails. Not that it's worked so far.

If I get something that says "FW:" in the title, I'll consider who it's from and determine if it needs to be opened. Maybe it's from someone at work, or the Scouts, or something like that.

But if I see one that says, "FW: FW: FW: FW:" it gets deleted without any analysis, second glance, or regrets.

Shadow_Ferret said:

If I get something that says "FW:" in the title, I'll consider who it's from and determine if it needs to be opened. Maybe it's from someone at work, or the Scouts, or something like that.

But if I see one that says, "FW: FW: FW: FW:" it gets deleted without any analysis, second glance, or regrets.

Click to expand...

*sends Ed a FW:FW:FW: email*

Pagey's_Girl said:

If they're anything like the resident jerk where I work, they'll claim that Snopes is just "part of the artsy-fartsy, fancy-pansy liberal media cartel" and ignore it. I'm staring to wonder if the real reason they put this cubicle around the desk is so I'd have a padded wall or two to bang my head against...

Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's when you educate them that snopes is in no way a political site. There are political things on there, but the bulk of their research has very little to do with politics.

vixey said:

*sends Ed a FW:FW:FW: email*

Click to expand...

*deletes it unread*

I'm surprised no one has touched on the subject of forwarded text and picture messages, too. (Or maybe they have and I fell asleep.) Emails... I don't get a lot of them. My sister sends one every once in awhile, no big deal. It's the text messages on my phone that freakin' tick me off!



The worst ones are the ones that say, if you don't forward this, you don't believe in God or if you don't forward this, you are a horrible parent, or if you DO forward this something exciting! great! wonderful! will happen in exactly TWO HOURS!

Gimme a break.

Now, I have several old friends and acquaintances where our only email contact (both ways) is forwarded funnies and such things we think each other will like. We know who each other are and it's a great pick-me-up in the middle of a hard day. If something's not right, well, a glance reveals that and the delete button is always available. I've been doing this for years with the same set of people and it's great.

However, what I'm describing is all consentual and there's very little of the "do this or face the consequences" type of BS emails. We're all cool with doing a little snip job at the end of such things we get before forwarding it to the group.

The thing I hate about forwarded emails, though, is the never-flipping-ending list of ALL the headers and stuff of everyone who's ever forwarded it for the last 75 years until you get to the three lines of joke at the VERY bottom of the 4mb email. Or the ones that have so many >>>>>>>>>> on the start of every line that it's impossible to read.

Ghods, people, if you ARE going to forward, can't you at least clean it up a bit--or did you really enjoy wading through that crap?

Gotta love the 'Help lil Billy' who's now 38, never had the pernicious creeping crud to begin with, and had no idea his 'story' was being circulated and money being collected for him and take by some scammer.

I'm still wondering if I can send all the Viagra ads to that Bank in Kenya which has an account set up for me if I send a 5G good faith money...

zanizh said:

I'm surprised no one has touched on the subject of forwarded text and picture messages, too. (Or maybe they have and I fell asleep.) Emails... I don't get a lot of them. My sister sends one every once in awhile, no big deal. It's the text messages on my phone that freakin' tick me off!



The worst ones are the ones that say, if you don't forward this, you don't believe in God or if you don't forward this, you are a horrible parent, or if you DO forward this something exciting! great! wonderful! will happen in exactly TWO HOURS!

Gimme a break.

Click to expand...

On your cell phone? Really? I think I'd blow a gasket if I got that kind of garbage on my cell phone, especially since I have to pay for the call and pay EXTRA for texting and graphics. I'd find a way to block the offender.

Dear Mother-In-Law,
I found a Special Program just for you. It will clean out your computer and make it run five times faster. Don't you want your computer to run five times faster?
Please click here:
http:/www.fuxewe.com/fuxor.exe

(don't worry, I did a whois, that domain doesn't exist AT THE TIME I TYPE THIS POST. Dunno about the time you read it.)

Thank You Dearest Mother-In-Law, and may God Bless.

James81 said:

Yeah, but that's when you educate them that snopes is in no way a political site. ...

Click to expand...

OH MY GOD! James, you're part of the CONSPIRACY! I thought you were my FRIEND!


There's no edumacatin' some people.

Shadow_Ferret said:

On your cell phone? Really? I think I'd blow a gasket if I got that kind of garbage on my cell phone, especially since I have to pay for the call and pay EXTRA for texting and graphics. I'd find a way to block the offender.

Click to expand...

As offensive as that is (that's enough to turn off text message receiving completely), you pay for email spam too, but indirectly. Spam is usually sent by illegal access, so the spammers don't pay anything. It costs the ISP's extra to maintain larger systems to handle extra emails (emails have to sit SOMEWHERE between the time the sender sends it and you receive it). Estimates in recent years are that 90 percent of all email traffic is spam. ISP email servers have crashed and people have lost legitimate email because the spam traffic for the day or weekend was greater than expected and overloaded the email servers.

If you don't see a lot of spam, it's almost certainly because your ISP filters out a lot of it. Filtering has its problems too, as the filters can't reliably distinguish spam. Any message that's sent to a large number of people might be detected as spam, such as email sent to everyone at a church congregation saying services won't be held this Sunday because the church burned down.

GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! This kind of crap makes me scream. I got the I love you and the melissa virus from one of my mothers friends in BC who forwarded me one of those emails.
I have my mother and my sister in law both on permanent block. I also now refuse to give my email address to any family member or friend without explicitly warning them of the dire consequences of sending me those types of mail. I have a bit of history within the family of doing 'odd' things from time to time, so no one challenges this anymore.

As far as Im concerned, people who forward this type of stuff need to have various pieces of computer equipment placed way way up in that dark place where the sun never shines. A**holes!


yer pal Brian

I finally broke my husband of forwarding the various crap, at least to me. He would send something to me and several other friends. I'd find the snopes page, send the link back to him, and then stand over him while he emailed the other people that it was a hoax. I think he has stopped, but maybe he just stopped sending to me.

MM

Shadow_Ferret said:

On your cell phone? Really? I think I'd blow a gasket if I got that kind of garbage on my cell phone, especially since I have to pay for the call and pay EXTRA for texting and graphics. I'd find a way to block the offender.

Click to expand...

I do have a plan that has like a 250 limit on text and pics sent which, even with the garbage, I don't get up to. So the money isn't a factor. It's the irritation of my phone trilling every hour or so.

I guess I don't have the email problem because I don't give my standard email address out to everyone. I have them go to my yahoo account which normally gets filtered out.

DeleyanLee said:

Now, I have several old friends and acquaintances where our only email contact (both ways) is forwarded funnies and such things we think each other will like. We know who each other are and it's a great pick-me-up in the middle of a hard day. If something's not right, well, a glance reveals that and the delete button is always available. I've been doing this for years with the same set of people and it's great.

However, what I'm describing is all consentual and there's very little of the "do this or face the consequences" type of BS emails. We're all cool with doing a little snip job at the end of such things we get before forwarding it to the group.

The thing I hate about forwarded emails, though, is the never-flipping-ending list of ALL the headers and stuff of everyone who's ever forwarded it for the last 75 years until you get to the three lines of joke at the VERY bottom of the 4mb email. Or the ones that have so many >>>>>>>>>> on the start of every line that it's impossible to read.

Ghods, people, if you ARE going to forward, can't you at least clean it up a bit--or did you really enjoy wading through that crap?

Click to expand...

See, that's the argument my mother in law gives me. "They're forwarded from my friends or family". I remind her that they didn't originate with her friends or family. Often, those emails started several years ago who knows where. Just because something comes to you from a friend doesn't mean it's safe. My policy is that if I don't know the person who originally wrote that email, I don't open it. I can't count the chain emails I've looked up on Snopes to find they originated sometimes six years ago or more.

Hey--I do wonder something, though. My email is through Bellsouth and it gives me a preview pane. I dont' have to open the email to view it. Is that the same as opening it? If so, I need to rethink my email provider.