Comments on: The Jesus Forwards

By: Calladus

Calladus — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:42:18 +0000

I call this sort of thing chain email, and label them as a sort of computer virus that can actually infect humans.

I wrote a blog entry on it, and anyone who sends me one of these emails will get a “reply all” with a link to my blog entry, explaining how they’ve been infected by a computer-borne virus.

My response is always the same – reply all with a link to that entry. After a while, people get the message and stop sending me stuff.

By: Matt Stone

Matt Stone — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:27:44 +0000

Yeah Stephanie I have found sending back Snopes stuff can be helpful too.

By: Metro

Metro — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:37:08 +0000

Most of the stuff I got was of the chain letter format. At first I used to enjoy sending one-to-one replies that would say, “Sorry, I deleted it.” Then I’d send back a message five minutes later saying something like “Holy crap! My car’s on fire in the parking lot! Could you send me that message again? I swear I’ll forward it to everyone I know … please!”

As I matured, I began to return said messages with a link to the relevant Snopes page for debunking. Hit “reply all” and add a vaguely reproachful note about how the stupid troll should have done their homework before spamming you with this.

On occasion, for especially stupid or stubborn Spammers, I clip the relevant dire threats from the “consequences if you fail to forward” section and send them (again with “reply all”) to the sender asking “You know I don’t forward spam, so why would you want these filthy things to happen to me?”

By: Rev. Bob

Rev. Bob — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:09:02 +0000

Sounds like a pretty good time to test how good your email program’s spam filters are. A few clicks and they’ll learn.

By: Nicholas Svara

Nicholas Svara — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:40:15 +0000

Is this a work e-mail address? I work in an IT department, and I know for a fact that we’d prefer any e-mails that don’t need to be in the system to be taken out of the system. They might also want to check their employee handbook, and check out “Appropriate use of computers and e-mail” or whatever their chapter is. That gives you the opportunity for the following, polite statement: “With the 4th of July coming up, I was double-checking what other days we have off, and I noticed that you could get in trouble for forwarding these non-work related e-mails around.”

A quick forward to IT or Human Resources, politely checking if it’s OK for these kinds of e-mails to be sent around, isn’t a bad idea either. If you keep it neutral, then you should be fine.

The filter only works if they’re not going to ask, “Did you see what I forwarded you?”

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:11:28 +0000

I agree Hemant

By: stephanie

stephanie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:58:37 +0000

I’ve had to do this before. I usually take the too much spam route and tell them if they want me to be able to respond when they actually send me something then they need to stop the forwards because it makes all of their posts go into my spam filter. If you play it right, that mix of conscientiousness and insult hits just right and they knock off the forwards. I’ve only had one friend who kept sending me crap, and I started sending back relevant debunk links from places like Snopes.

By: TXatheist

TXatheist — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:26:46 +0000

If it’s a friend and you don’t to annoy them then I don’t suggest responding to the email like I do. I get them and I’ve alienated people I thought were cool with me and just realize it’s not worth trying to be their buddy if it hinges on me being a xian.

By: David W.

David W. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:41:22 +0000

It’s called a filter. Set it up so that messages with her email address in the From field, and “Jesus”, “God”, “Bible”, etc. are in the entire message, then the email gets deleted immediately.

By: HappyNat

HappyNat — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:27:05 +0000

I hd a friend who kept sending me “the forward” e-mails, ya know you have to forward it to X number of people within 5 minutes to get money/one wish/love/free pants/etc. After I asked him to stop and he wouldn’t I started to “reply all” to his e-mails, so I knew his friends and family were getting them. I’d start by saying how dumb the forwards were and then continue on about personal stuff and write as if I thought I was only writing to him. I didn’t say anything too personal but I’d hint at private matters and throw in some mild cuss words. After doing this a couple times I got off his forward list.

With the coworker I would tell her to stop sending me forwards. Say you get enough forwards from other people and don’t have time.