The wife of my mother's cousin got my email address when one member of the family sent out a link to some wedding pictures to all the other members of the family, and added me to her address book.
Now, it turns out she's one of those people who forwards every inspirational anecdote, "email me and five others if you're my friend" chain letter, and bogus virus/health scare to half the world and his dog.
I've already set up a filter so that everything she sends automatically goes in my junk folder, which unfortunately means that I do miss the rare times she sends something substantial like family news.
Soo....has anyone yet figured out a tactful way to tell someone "quit sending me this crap!"
edit: she's a someONE not a someTHING.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 7:51am by Ambrya
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How do you stop the obnoxious emailer?Follow
You're better off deleting them.
Send it back to her and tell her that you're too busy to fully appreciate emails like these, and to please limit emails to you to actual conversations.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
trickybeck wrote:
You're better off deleting them.
Donate. One day it could be your family.
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo
Send her this one:
Nexa
Quote:
If you receive an email entitled "Bedtimes"
Delete it IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it.
Apparently this one is pretty nasty.
It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer.
It demagnetizes the stripes on ALL of your credit cards.
It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR, and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play.
It will program your phone auto dial to call only 0898 numbers.
This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.
IT WILL CAUSE YOUR TOILET TO FLUSH WHILE YOU ARE SHOWERING.
It will drink ALL your beer.
FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING? ?
It will leave dirty underwear on the coffee table when you are expecting company.
It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine. If the "Bedtimes" message opened in a Windows 95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.
It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk.
***
WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.
***
And if you don't send this to 5000 people in 20 seconds, you'll fart so hard that your right leg will spasm and shoot straight out in front of you, sending sparks that will ignite the person nearest you.
Send this warning to everyone!!!
THERE'S A LOT OF SADNESS IN THE WORLD!
Right now, as you read this, 17 Million people are having SEX!!!
And look at you - you're on the computer!!!!
Delete it IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it.
Apparently this one is pretty nasty.
It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer.
It demagnetizes the stripes on ALL of your credit cards.
It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR, and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play.
It will program your phone auto dial to call only 0898 numbers.
This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.
IT WILL CAUSE YOUR TOILET TO FLUSH WHILE YOU ARE SHOWERING.
It will drink ALL your beer.
FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING? ?
It will leave dirty underwear on the coffee table when you are expecting company.
It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine. If the "Bedtimes" message opened in a Windows 95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.
It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk.
***
WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.
***
And if you don't send this to 5000 people in 20 seconds, you'll fart so hard that your right leg will spasm and shoot straight out in front of you, sending sparks that will ignite the person nearest you.
Send this warning to everyone!!!
THERE'S A LOT OF SADNESS IN THE WORLD!
Right now, as you read this, 17 Million people are having SEX!!!
And look at you - you're on the computer!!!!
Nexa
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But a half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.â€
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
Ambrya wrote:
The wife of my mother's cousin got my email address when one member of the family sent out a link to some wedding pictures to all the other members of the family, and added me to her address book.
Now, it turns out she's one of those people who forwards every inspirational anecdote, "email me and five others if you're my friend" chain letter, and bogus virus/health scare to half the world and his dog.
I've already set up a filter so that everything she sends automatically goes in my junk folder, which unfortunately means that I do miss the rare times she sends something substantial like family news.
Soo....has anyone yet figured out a tactful way to tell someone "quit sending me this crap!"
edit: she's a someONE not a someTHING.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 7:51am by Ambrya
Now, it turns out she's one of those people who forwards every inspirational anecdote, "email me and five others if you're my friend" chain letter, and bogus virus/health scare to half the world and his dog.
I've already set up a filter so that everything she sends automatically goes in my junk folder, which unfortunately means that I do miss the rare times she sends something substantial like family news.
Soo....has anyone yet figured out a tactful way to tell someone "quit sending me this crap!"
edit: she's a someONE not a someTHING.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 7:51am by Ambrya
You start proving her stupid emails wrong by going to snopes.com. Then you send it back out to every one she sent it too with the correction plus the orig emailer. Serioulsy works.
katielynn wrote:
You start proving her stupid emails wrong by going to snopes.com. Then you send it back out to every one she sent it too with the correction plus the orig emailer. Serioulsy works.
Oh, sorry, I thought the implication was "How do you stop the obnoxious emailer without being more obnoxious than they are?"
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Samira wrote:
katielynn wrote:
You start proving her stupid emails wrong by going to snopes.com. Then you send it back out to every one she sent it too with the correction plus the orig emailer. Serioulsy works.
Oh, sorry, I thought the implication was "How do you stop the obnoxious emailer without being more obnoxious than they are?"
I hate spam mail. I tried deleting it, I tried talking about it. The straw that broke the camels back was one talking about how immigrants (legal or not) were 2nd class citizens and should all be sent to some island and nuked. I wrote back and told her off and mass emailed it back.
I just reply and say "Stop sending me this crap. I have too much email as it is, I really don't have time to read it."
Katielynn wrote:
You start proving her stupid emails wrong by going to snopes.com. Then you send it back out to every one she sent it too with the correction plus the orig emailer. Serioulsy works.
I've actually already done this a couple times, and gotten thank-yous for posting the correct information from other recipients on her list, but she still sends them out without fact-checking.
Also, she's not very well educated, so her spelling, grammar and punctuation are atrocious, which means even the legitimate emails make me want to pull my hair out. No, she's not using cyber-slang. She's just that uneducated.
Ambrya wrote:
Katielynn wrote:
You start proving her stupid emails wrong by going to snopes.com. Then you send it back out to every one she sent it too with the correction plus the orig emailer. Serioulsy works.
I've actually already done this a couple times, and gotten thank-yous for posting the correct information from other recipients on her list, but she still sends them out without fact-checking.
Also, she's not very well educated, so her spelling, grammar and punctuation are atrocious, which means even the legitimate emails make me want to pull my hair out. No, she's not using cyber-slang. She's just that uneducated.
Are they normally forwards Ambrya? You may be able to skirt the issue by setting up a mail rule to have emails from her starting with FWD or whatever auto-deleted and other stuff (family affairs) come to your inbox.
Nexa
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But a half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.â€
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
Katielynn wrote:
I hate spam mail. I tried deleting it, I tried talking about it. The straw that broke the camels back was one talking about how immigrants (legal or not) were 2nd class citizens and should all be sent to some island and nuked. I wrote back and told her off and mass emailed it back.
Yeah, it could be worse. I had a friend whose mother used to do the same thing to her, only she would send them to my friend's work email, and one time send one that was quite racist (I don't remember exactly what it was, some sort of cartoon about a power outage in Harlem and all you could see were a bunch of grinning teeth on the black background.) She ended up getting into a HUGE argument with her mother when she informed her mother that not only was that offensive to her, but that it could get her fired. Her mother, of course, went all defensive and got butthurt about how people are too sensitive and it was just funny and not at all racist blah blah blah.
At least I haven't had to deal with any of those yet.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 8:52am by Ambrya
Nexa wrote:
Are they normally forwards Ambrya? You may be able to skirt the issue by setting up a mail rule to have emails from her starting with FWD or whatever auto-deleted and other stuff (family affairs) come to your inbox.
Nexa
I'd say probably about 98% of the stuff she sends is forwarded. Once or twice a year she'll send a "state of the family" type email. I actually tried what you were suggesting. Some of them have "fw" or "fwd" in the subject line, but not all. That particular filter would get maybe 80% of the obnoxious stuff. I don't know if she deletes the "fwd" part before sending them out or what, but a surprising number don't have it.
Ambrya wrote:
Nexa wrote:
Are they normally forwards Ambrya? You may be able to skirt the issue by setting up a mail rule to have emails from her starting with FWD or whatever auto-deleted and other stuff (family affairs) come to your inbox.
Nexa
I'd say probably about 98% of the stuff she sends is forwarded. Once or twice a year she'll send a "state of the family" type email. I actually tried what you were suggesting. Some of them have "fw" or "fwd" in the subject line, but not all. That particular filter would get maybe 80% of the obnoxious stuff. I don't know if she deletes the "fwd" part before sending them out or what, but a surprising number don't have it.
Well, 80% ain't too shabby...
Nexa
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But a half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.â€
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
Email her a link to this thread. Now.
Just as Planned.
Well, how bad a problem is it? My aunt sends me all that crap too and I simply delete her e-mail when I see it. Takes 1 second.
Done.
Done.
What's bred in the bone will not out of the flesh.
Timelordwho wrote:
Email her a link to this thread. Now.
Haha, I just flashed on Dear Abby telling people to "leave the newspaper open to this page where your husband will see it."
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Tare wrote:
Well, how bad a problem is it? My aunt sends me all that crap too and I simply delete her e-mail when I see it. Takes 1 second.
Done.
Done.
..and occasionally one of them emails has a tidge of value.
Alma wrote:
I lost my post
Really? I've never had someone react overly negative when I just ask them to exclude me from their internet chain letter mailing list. Actually, I get a few laughs about it.
Quote:
How do you stop the obnoxious emailer?
With a knife.
"I have lost my way
But I hear a tale
About a heaven in Alberta
Where they've got all hell for a basement"
But I hear a tale
About a heaven in Alberta
Where they've got all hell for a basement"
Save all those emails into a separate folder. Collect them for about a month or two weeks, whichever gives a reasonably large amount of crap. After that send every single one of them back at the same time.
Tried it, wasn't worth the drama. I have several family members who do this stuff, and when I tried explaining how annoying it was they got all butt-hurt about it and apologized sarcastically for offending me. It took over a year before they got over it, then they began the process again.
I also tried Katie's suggestion of linking them to Snopes proving some chain email to be false. After that I would get even more asking me if they were true too, as if they couldn't check them out themselves.
Now adays I just delete them all and don't worry about it anymore. It's a lot less drama and pain that way.
I also tried Katie's suggestion of linking them to Snopes proving some chain email to be false. After that I would get even more asking me if they were true too, as if they couldn't check them out themselves.
Now adays I just delete them all and don't worry about it anymore. It's a lot less drama and pain that way.
Some people are like slinkies, they aren't really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
If its one that says "mail this to 10 people immediately," just send it back to them 10 times.
Or you can reply with an email warning her that if she continues to send spam you will start replying to everyone on her list with something truly sick, embarassing. or whatever. And each subsequent spam you get the response will be even worse.
Start off with something like a pic of a dead animal. Then the next one will be something like a video of a pet throwing up on the carpet. The next could be something like a severed finger.
I think you get the idea.
Start off with something like a pic of a dead animal. Then the next one will be something like a video of a pet throwing up on the carpet. The next could be something like a severed finger.
I think you get the idea.
I tend to do a Reply All linking to the Snopes article about whatever the forward is, debunking it as crap.
That's how I got my sister in law to stop sending me that sh*t.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 3:15pm by Danalog
That's how I got my sister in law to stop sending me that sh*t.
Edited, Jan 14th 2009 3:15pm by Danalog
Do what now?
My wife's sisters used to forward their crap mail to me. I asked them to stop several times, then told them that forwarded emails are the #1 spreader of computer viruses, and that anything that was forwarded to me would be deleted unread.
That still didn't work,so I just delete any and all emails from them unread. It works for me.
That still didn't work,so I just delete any and all emails from them unread. It works for me.
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