Comments on: Separating Fact from Fiction https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html a freelance writing resource. Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:23:39 +0000 hourly 1 By: Lori https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4333 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:23:39 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4333 Wendy, that's the worst kind – "It may help you!" Oh yea? Should I start sending you Viagra ads for the same reason? Sheesh.

Katharine, you get no argument from me! I'm all for setting the record straight, even if it's family.

Paula, I wondered how long it would take before someone hung a "conspiracy" theory on Snopes. 🙂 Amazing that anyone sees it as anything other than helpful.

Wordvixen, I'm laughing like crazy! I bet they were steamed. :))

]]> By: WordVixen https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4332 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:59:33 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4332 My husband and I have to check Snopes for almost every forwarded email from my Father in Law. He's old school enough to believe that if it's on the internet, it must have been passed by someone with responsibility. I'm fairly certain that he doesn't understand the word "blog" or what it means. The worst was when he sent on an article about Honda buying the Oldsmobile name and trademark… Hubs bought into it, but I was the one that read the WHOLE article and then pointed out the "April Fools" at the bottom. Yeesh. They were both so mad I thought I'd be driving two people into the hospital. 😀

]]> By: Paula https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4331 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:01:15 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4331 With false (and usually malicious) e-mail, I do the same thing you do, Lori. I check it out at snopes.com, hit Reply All, and provide a link.

I started doing this when so many blatant lies were being forwarded on as "facts" during the 2008 presidential race.

A few weeks ago, someone replied back to me about how unreliable snopes is, She said is was run by left-wing pro-socialist anti-life couple who never check anything and only post results supporting their own beliefs, so you can't believe anything on it. Wonder where they heard that one….Fox news, perhaps? I was kind of surprised the person telling me this claptrap didn't also suggest the couple was living in sin – in a drug house, no less.

I just love it when people can't handle being proven wrong and decide to attack the source. My dad did that once when I told him he'd misspelled a word. He said the dictionary was wrong. (Thankfully he was joking.)

I had heard that snopes was founded by a married couple, but it's grown so much I can't think just two people could do the amount of research necessary to keep the site going.

]]> By: Wendy https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4330 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:23:36 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4330 Do you know how many forwarded emails I get from people I know that have information on "Breakthrough treatments for MS!" or XYZ products "that could change my life"? Pretty much everyone of them is just horrendous or completely stupid.

Do you honestly believe that I could be pain-free or have my symptoms miraculously disappear simply by submersing myself in ice cold water? Yea, and that's like one of the mildest I've seen.

I've passed on the Snopes site to them, but they still see these things and think I have to check it out.

Some people send things on with a note telling me that I'll get a laugh out of it, so those don't bother me. But, it's the ones that are trying to be helpful without bothering to check on the validity of the information before sending it to me that gets under my skin.

]]> By: Katharine Swan https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4329 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:43:34 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4329 Lori, I am well-known (and probably well-hated) for checking the validity of any email forward I get — and then hitting "Reply to All" with the Snopes.com link. Ninety-nine percent of them are hoaxes, so I think I'm justified. :o)

]]> By: Lori https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4328 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:58:47 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4328 Yes, I've un-linked from sites that are clearly posting the praises of their latest benefactors.

The emails usually get sent right back to the ENTIRE group that was included on the original, along with a detailed explanation of why it's false. I'll send along Snopes.com links if I need to. I don't worry about embarrassing anyone – it would be more embarrassing to have friends forward the same drivel to their friends or worse, colleagues/bosses/clients. And frankly, people who don't check their stories before passing them along don't get much sympathy from me.

]]> By: Devon Ellington https://wordsonpageblog.com/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html#comment-4327 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:28:43 +0000 http://loriwidmer.com/wordsonpage/index.php/2009/12/separating-fact-from-fiction.html/#comment-4327 Most of the time, I don't return to the site. If it's an email posing as something it's not, I forward it to the appropriate consumer protection agency or other authority.

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