Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Web services
Stopforwarding.Us Asks Your Friends To Stop Spamming
Everyone has at least one friend who just can't resist forwarding every virus alert, joke, or lolcat they get their hands on. Apart from just replying with a nice, blunt "I don't want you sending me this crap anymore," how do you ask them to desist?
Simply entering their name and email address on StopForwarding.Us and clicking send will fire off an anonymous message asking them to give it a rest.
Has it really come to the point where we need to use an online tool to handle even this type of communication? What's next? Proposeto.me for the impatient girlfriend? Passmethesalt.com?
Hell, why not take it a step further and offer a service that will anonymously email another one of your friends and ask them to contact the offending friend. Or maybe their mother. Yeah, that works.
Simply entering their name and email address on StopForwarding.Us and clicking send will fire off an anonymous message asking them to give it a rest.
Has it really come to the point where we need to use an online tool to handle even this type of communication? What's next? Proposeto.me for the impatient girlfriend? Passmethesalt.com?
Hell, why not take it a step further and offer a service that will anonymously email another one of your friends and ask them to contact the offending friend. Or maybe their mother. Yeah, that works.
Think of all the time that person will spend wondering who sent the message. And what a great way to make someone feel like an ogre! "Oh god, I'm such a jerk that someone I like can't even ask me to stop sending forwards!"
Maybe you fear reprisal. Maybe you're ultra-PC. Who knows what someone's reason for using this service would be. I can't honestly understand the point. If this really is someone who's close to you, should you not just politely ask them to stop? Possibly even face to face, or at least on the phone? I don't get it.
Perhaps one of you - our readers - can explain it to me.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Granata said 3:11PM on 9-12-2008
Those are some great ideas, Mr. Mathews! Maybe I'll go after them next. Thanks for the mention.
For the record, I think the best thing to do, if possible, is confront the offending forwarder as politely as possible in person. But for those who don't feel comfortable doing so, I offer this site.
You should see the hate mail I get:-)
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Eric said 3:56PM on 9-12-2008
I sent an e-mail to everyone in my address book explaining my views (both political and religious) and informed everyone that I did not want them telling me what I should think.
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Jonathan Harford said 5:07PM on 9-12-2008
Is there a service for asking acquaintences not to use their email address book as though it were blogspot.com? (One guy sends out 2-3 emails per week about what he's been up to, and I don't even know what he looks like.)
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Simon said 6:23PM on 9-12-2008
As someone who's tried the direct approach with a relative and basically got told "don't tell me what to do", I'm afraid I can appreciate this sort of service. If you don't know why it's needed, then you must be lucky enough not to have people that email you that pretty much require this sort of nudge.
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Marie said 7:41PM on 9-12-2008
My sister does this, and so do the rest of her friends. (She's an adult, not 12!) It is so damn annoying!! I'm glad we're no longer in speaking terms and she took me off her FW list. I was lucky.
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J.T Dabbagian said 7:49PM on 9-12-2008
Well, there's always "The Internet's Premier BO Notification Service"
http://www.youhavebo.com
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Dave Donohue said 8:07PM on 9-12-2008
Anyone who's got 50+ year old relatives, in-laws, etc. - especially retirees - can benefit from this. There's a whole world of old people who use e-mail solely for forwarding BS around.
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Duke said 11:14PM on 9-12-2008
Next week on DSQ: YourBodyOdorAnnoys.us
"One of your friendly acting yet backstabbing acquaintances has sent you this message from YourBodyOdorAnnoys.Us, a website that allows cowards to anonymously email their false friends [...]"
How about TALKING to people? And by that I don't mean "you dimwit, stop sending me junk!!1", but an honest explanation WHY they should stop. If they don't listen - filter their emails. Eventually they'll ask why you dont react to their mails, and you can tell them your auto-learning filter throught they were spammers .. "I wonder why that is"... got it?
BTW: People who don't comply with their friends requests will certainly not care about an anonymous email sent by some coward.
Some might even sent fake mass mailings with only one recipient... and if you were that one recipient and five minutes later they get the anonymous email, you're in for some embarrassment.
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Atanas Boev said 1:56AM on 9-13-2008
passmethesa.lt
putdownthetoiletse.at
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Horia Dragomir said 10:36AM on 9-13-2008
The point Mr Mathews is making should be given more in-dept consideration.
What he's saying is that people are hiding behind their firewalls, NoScript aliases and what-not. In this case, users don't have to give out any sort of information about themselves.
That is a great way to ditch all of you responsibility and prove to yourself, once again, that you're a coward :)
But that's just me.
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Duke said 10:53AM on 9-13-2008
One more thing. Who would you consider to be more annoying? A friend who...
1) ... forwards time wasting emails to you
2) ... enters your email address into some web form only to send you an anonymous message?
I'd say 2... I hate receiving "eGreetingCards", you never know where your email address is going to end up
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tessa said 7:02PM on 9-15-2008
just don't open the mail
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