Emails I don't want to get

[herb fellows]

After reading the Facebook post (thank you very much, I don't have friends who send me stuff like that!), it started me thinking about really annoying emails.
I'm not talking about the Viagra ads or 'you know what' extenders, I'm talking about things that friends send you.
They will usually have some tear jerk story, and then at the very end of the email, a veiled (or not so veiled) threat. If you don't forward this to at least 10 people, you:

a) will come down with the plague
b) experience something so bad, I can't even describe it in words
c) have no heart, and therefore obviously deserve to die a horrible slow and painful death
c)Will, at the very least, be considered a horrible person.

What are these people thinking when they send out something like this? I know what I think when I receive it, and it's not printable here!

[Uncle Cracker]

It's a classic chain letter. Don't break the chain, or it will trigger the apocalypse. It's amazing just how many people believe in them. E-mail made it where the cost of postage doesn't make any of them think twice...

[sparkeyjames]

I have often thought of writing a filter to automagicly place those in the junk folder but have just not gotten around to it.
Lets just say I cannot hit the delete key fast enough when I detect one of those.

[leehljp]

What are these people thinking when they send out something like this? I know what I think when I receive it, and it's not printable here!

IMNSHO (Not So Humble) it is a psychosis!

No offense intended, but I just can't imagine anything else motivating some people to do this perpetually.

Herb, I edited in a note on my post on the FB thread - All of the requests that I get are not a matter of popularity or even being well known, but from a tendency for ministry related personnel to hang out in this kind of atmosphere more so than most professions. Still, I let LOML to do it. Let me email or post to a couple of forums or so.

[Pappy]

I read these emails if the subject is of interest to me, then delete them. I will forward some if I think the recipeint is interested AND if I can edit the ending.

[Richard in Smithville]

I got one of those forwarding emails once. It stated that if I send it to five people in five minutes, stink all( not the actual words) will happen. I tried it and they were right. Stink all happened! I was so amazed that I had to try it again!

All kidding aside, these emails that ask you to forward to so many people is really a form of internet virus( for lavk of better wording). It serves it's purpose by clogging the internet pathways.

[Prax]

My 2 cents...if it has more then one FWD: in the subject line, I stop reading and delete. I agree with Richard, it is like a virus, slows everything down processing those emails over and over and over.....Keep your friends close and spam block the rest :P

[JR]

And then there's the variant in which a BS amendment to a long-dead bill in congress is purported to be the latest manifestation of the liberal/conservate conspiracy against my freedom. My failure to electronically ride Paul Revere's ride will bring down the republic.

Snopes, people! A little fact checking goes a long way in this world.

JR

[Hoover]

I detest those emails, act now or in the next 10 minutes something bad will happen. It does happen, I get more of the darned things. The delete email feature is in constant use.

[crokett]

I've trained my family to stop sending those, at least to me. As a result, some have stopped sending me anything at all, which is fine. But I get a lot less since I started asking people to not send me chain letters. The only one who persisted was a cousin and I sent all her emails to the junk folder until one day my dad said she wanted him to ask if I was still getting her email. I sent her a note that said no, and explained why. Also told her I would take off the spam filter and see what happened. No more chain letters since.