PSA: Urban Legends Emailed
Snopes.com is the definitive website to find out if that too-good-to-be-true email you just got actually is too good to be true.
Now snopes has made it even easier to find out. Introducing the Urban Legends Reference Pages: 25 Hottest Urban Legends.
Bookmark it. Subscribe to the RSS feed. Sign up for their email. Do something! Just don’t send me that email again!
BTW, several years ago I “replied to all” to announce a hoax email and cited a webpage to back me up. I got an angry reply from someone on the list that I didn’t know saying “how dare I call it a hoax” and for all he knew “I created that entire website just to debunk emails like that” and implored me to “never email him again.”
I laughed and obliged. I still crack up over that.
So, did you email him to say that you wouldn’t email him anymore?
Comment by karin — January 27, 2005 @ 10:33 pm
I thought about it, but my keyboard was too sticky. See, I was drinking Coke and when I read his email I spewed it all over the keyboard.
Besides, I was in the middle of creating other dastardly websites I could create to debunk free trips to Disney.
Comment by rob — January 27, 2005 @ 10:46 pm
i love snopes! its always my first stop when someone sends me a FWD…i spread the word about that site (like in the latest IdeaLab newsletter) and try to take the non-judgemental approach of saying something like, “isn’t lame that people don’t have better things to do than make up hoaxes? check out this site for yourself. its fun and a great resource.” not to mention it makes you feel so smart to be on the up and up about whats true and false.
i love that site, how they have references to back things up. speaking of coke, theres a cool section about coca-cola hoaxes there too.
ps. rob, thanks for the nice comments on my blog. i wrote you a response if you want to check it out there.
Comment by the salmon — January 28, 2005 @ 1:17 am