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Avoid Email Myths

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Email Myths

This message was sent to the KPLUG mailing list, 1999

E-MAIL MYTHS - - - Fourteen things EVERYONE should Know!

1. Big companies don't do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is not
giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation.
There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. MTV will
not give you backstage passes if you forward something to the most
people. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on &quot;just in case
it's true.&quot; How were they going to mail the check, voucher or coupons
anyway?! Furthermore, just because someone said in the message,
four generations back, that &quot;we checked it out and it's legit,&quot;
does not actually make it true.

2. 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.

3. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if
they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy at:
<a href="http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html">http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html</a> Then, if you make the recipe
and decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.

4. We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate
coworkers, 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
change a light bulb.

5. If the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that
went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think
this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter?

6. There is no &quot;Good Times&quot; 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. Try: <a href="http://www.norton.com">http://www.norton.com</a> And even then,
don't forward it. We don't care. And you cannot get a virus from a
flashing IM or email, you have to download....ya know, like a FILE!

7. If your CC: list is regularly longer than the actual content of your
message, you're probably going to Hell.

8. If you're using Outlook, I.E., or Netscape to write email, turn off
the HTML encoding. Those of us on Unix shells can't read it and don't
care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web browser,
since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman Marcus Cookie
Recipe anyway.

9. If you still absolutely MUST forward something to 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. It sure wouldn't hurt
to get rid of all the &quot;&quot; (or the &gt;&gt;) that begin each line. Besides,
if it has gone around that many times-we've probably already seen it.

10. Craig Shergold (or Sherwood, or Sherman, etc.) in England is not
dying of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone
to stop sending him their business cards. He apparently is also no
longer a little boy either.

11. The &quot;Make a Wish&quot; foundation is a real organization doing fine
work, but they have had to establish a special toll free hot line in
response to the large number of Internet hoaxes using their good name
and reputation. It is distracting them from the important work they do.

12. If you are one of those insufferable idiots who forwards anything
that promises &quot;something bad will happen if you don't,&quot; then something
bad will happen to you if I ever meet you in a dark alley.
Also, if you are one of those friends of the friendless who send on
gushy friendship poems with a guilt trip at the end to send this to all your
friends and if it comes back to you...blah blah blah. A friend is someone
who calls you personally and tells you how much you mean to them...not
through a mass spamming of intimate rhymes.

13. Women really are suffering in Afghanistan, and PBS and NEA funding
are still vulnerable to attack (although not at the present time) but
forwarding an email won't help either cause in the least. If you want
to help, contact your local legislative representative, or get in touch
with Amnesty International or the Red Cross.

14. Febreeze does not kill or maim animals. Check with your local vet
if in doubt. As a general rule, email &quot;signatures&quot; are easily faked
and mean nothing to anyone with any power to do anything about whatever
the petition is complaining about.

P.S. There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow
long distance companies to charge you for long distance when using the
Internet.)

Bottom Line ... composing Email or posting something on the Net is as
easy as writing on the walls of a public restroom. Don't automatically
believe unless it's proven true...ASSUME it's false, unless there is
proof that it's true.

Got it? Good.

Now, forward this message to ten friends and you will win the
Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.

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