Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Kelly Jo Garner" <kelly AT metalab.unc.edu>]

> What's the polite thing to do with email from internet unsavy relatives
> who are regularly forwarding hoaxes, both urban and political.  The
> typical email will have been forwarded many times, and I'm usually
> included on a very long list of friends and relatives.  Should I:
>
> 1. Reply only to the author with links to the appropriate section of
> snopes.com?
> 2. Reply to everyone on the list?

I don't think it's out of line to reply to everyone with a link to
snopes.com or whatever debunking-site-of-choice you like. Perhaps it will
also teach the joy of bcc as well, but that's another commentary for
another time.

Fortunately the people who send me forwards like that (not many) usually
follow it up with a "sorry! that wasn't true!" email a day or so later. Of
course, that begs the question of why investigate *after* sending it in
the first place.

Cheers
KJ