05.08.06
About Snopes
Bobster has posted “8 Ways to Destroy America“. In the post, he mentions Snopes. In passing he says, “Snopes seems to think it is legitimate”. This implies that Snopes is an authority, but does not explain what exactly Snopes is.
I realize that most of our readers are pretty “Internet savvy”, but not everyone knows Snopes. And that is a shame.
According to their Home Page, Snopes is an “Urban Legend Reference Page”. They research and debunk urban/internet legends.
I, for one, am so tired of my Inbox filling up with forwarded stories and schemes. I know that everyone believes they are doing a good thing. Warning me of the dangers of one thing or another. Most of the time, the stories have been going around for years. I always go to Snopes to check out the veracity and validity of any story I am tempted to forward.
If everyone knew of and used Snopes to research these stories before forwarding to everyone they know, we would significantly reduce the bandwidth being consumed by email. It probably wouldn’t be close to what the spammers generate, but still would be significant.
Think of the save productivity. There would be a lot more time to send/forward all of those old jokes and cute e-Cards.
PLEASE, think before you forward. RESEARCH, before you try to warn all your friends. You won’t have to apologize after you send it to me and I research it and debunk it - replying to everyone you sent it to.
BOOKMARK Snopes and use them!!
Permalink 331 views
