Forwarding Email

Why on earth my friends and relatives over the age of 50 forward useless information and cute pictures to me, I will never know. Every single day there they are, sitting in my email folder waiting for me. Just because something comes in your e-mail doesn't automatically make it true (well, unless it's from me :-) Before you forward it to everyone in your address book, do five minutes of research. Also, just FYI, Disney and Bill gates aren't giving away free vacations, there are no little girls dying of cancer who get a dollar for everyone you forward their message to, and, no, you aren't going to have a terrible accident if you stop forwarding chain letters. (Just so you know, it's impossible to track forwarded e-mail, so when you see something that claims to do it, it's automatically a hoax.)
And please don't forward them "Just in case it's true". Sending stuff like this around is the equivalent of having an internet "kick me" sign hanging off your back. (copied from some guy named Steve)

Please ask before you start forwarding me things. Just because you have my email address, doesn't mean I want all those forwards! Please don't send me a message that instructs, begs or demands that I forward it on. You may not mean it that way, but these mandates imply that you do not trust me to decide for myself what is worthy of forwarding and what is not. I prefer to decide on my own. I don't need some anonymously written poem or heart-wrenching story to remind me how important friends are. I know you are my friend. If you want to show me you care, send me a sincere personal note to let me know how you are doing, or a picture of the kids, the pet, etc. I'd rather get that than an anonymous poem any day. Copy and paste the text you want to forward into a new message. Just hitting "forward" often adds indents or annoying ">>" characters to let me know what's old text and what's new. The resulting message is confusing and difficult to read. If the message already has them in it, please take them out before you send it to me. If its not worth the effort, maybe you shouldn't be forwarding it. Don't feel compelled to share with me every joke you receive. There are many "joke-a-day" lists to which I can subscribe and get the same jokes. Also, I've been on the 'net long enough to have seen the same jokes numerous times. Unless it is absolutely, positively, hands-down, without-a-doubt the funniest, rip-roaringest, knee-slappingest joke you've ever seen, please don't forward it to me. (ideas from breakthechain.org)

I know that these ideas are copied, but I couldn't have put it better myself! I just wish I were brave enough to email these thoughts to 7 or 8 people in my life!