The Good, the bad and the irksome :

Fwd:Fw:Fw:Fw

Aditha DISSANAYAKE

What would you do if you get an email forward with an invitation to go to paradise with the girl or guy of your dreams — if you reply within three minutes? Or an offer to be one of a handful of people to escape dooms day on 21 December, if you reply within three minutes? Are email forwards the most aggravating cultural phenomena of the information age or the best invention ever?

Some of us love them, some of us hate them. Some of us like one thing, some another. Some believe everything, some believe nothing. Some just delete, some read and delete and most, just pass them on.

Email forwards. We all get them everyday. Who doesn't? Now that email has become mainstream, forwards are as common as bees in a beehive, and at times, just as irksome.

A forward can be anything -- a story, an aphorism, a virus hoax, an image, sound or movie attachment. What makes it a “forward” is that you get it in your email inbox, from someone and forward it to everyone you know, with the impression that the recipient would enjoy the item or find it useful.

Memorable

And the surprising thing is some of these forwards are not only useful, but memorable too, and worth cherishing for life. If you ever found the email “Fw.fw.fw. Why mom is the best” in your inbox which begins with “when you were a one year old she fed you and bathed you, you thanked her by crying all night long”, you would know what I mean.

When you are feeling gloomy and wishing the world would end sooner than on December 21st, you are bound to see an email forward from a friend that reminds you, the world would be alright again if you change your attitude, that “one day you are the pigeon, one day you are the statue, and that this cloudy period too shall pass.”

Positive email forwards from friends with lovely pictures and motivational quotes remind you that they care about you. When you get into the ‘forwarding act yourself you hope those who receive your forward would feel the same – that you sent this forward to them because you were thinking about them and thought this was the best way to say “hello”.

One of the most beautiful email forwards that landed in my inbox summoned the “positive kick” forwards generate, through an adage in Tamil which embodies the essence of a good forward, “let the world enjoy the happiness that I have known.”

But, like in most things in life there is another side to the coin too and the most significant feature on this other side is the dan

ger that your email address could get into the hands of a spammer.

Calling it a hidden, but non-trivial side effect of forwarding emails, technocrats explain that when your friends forward an email they receive from you, unless you Bcc it, your email address is likely to be forwarded along with it and will probably end up in a large number of email in-boxes in diverse regions of the planet. Once the forwarded email begins its journey from your computer, to the Rest Of The World, you have absolutely no control over how many times the email gets forwarded and, of course, how many times your private email address gets forwarded right along with it.

Mailing lists

Your email address is likely to end up, not only in the private in-boxes of complete strangers, but also on mailing lists, news groups, online forums and the hard copy someone printed off to show his Great Uncle who lives in an igloo in Alaska.

Sooner or later, it is possible, even probable, that your email address will cross the in-box of a spammer who undoubtedly thrive on emails that have been forwarded a number of times.

For them, the dozens of valid addresses that such emails have collected upon their journey through cyberspace must seem an enticing bonus. This is certainly not the only way that spammers get hold of email addresses, but it is a significant factor that should not be ignored.

It is also a bit of a challenge to remember who it is that you can forward a particular email to and who you must not, especially if you have dozens of friends on your email list. If you do not, sending forwards might backfire and break a friendship. It could often be that you should remember if the forward contains information that might be or might not be true, you should not send it to sticklers of accuracy like your father, brother or the uncle next door. If it is religious don't send it to X, Y or Z. If it is spiritual but not religious don't send it to your Aunt C.

“I would never intentionally upset anyone but frankly don't have the time to sort each and every email into it's appropriate category” explains a friend who is heavily into email forwards.

He adds “This leaves me with only two choices. I can quit forwarding emails, in which case I would quit getting any and I would miss them, or I can just keep asking my friends to be tolerant if I send the wrong thing.”

Another friend who is a sceptic says “forwards do not show someone that you care. If I were to mail you a newspaper or magazine article everyday with “Check this out” written at the top (that someone probably sent to me), you would not think, “Oh gosh, he really cares about me.” More likely, you would think, “Hey how about writing me a real letter!”

He also adds, “the majority of people who notoriously forward email probably don't even read what they are sending or at least really think about the validity of it. Think about it, if people were suddenly dropping dead from some deadly LSD poison that they touched when they used a mobile phone, don't you think that you might hear about it somewhere else besides email?”

A colleague explains she dislikes it when her friends try to verify and shred into pieces an email forward - finding untruths or bad connections in the text because it strips the joy that particular email conveyed to her.

“I received one email picturing about 5 piglets with tiger skin looking coats on them and they were asleep on a sleeping tiger,” she explained. “I thought it was precious! How cute! Well, as usual I sent it on to my friends only to get a sad and heartbreaking letter back from one of them.

She had verified the info and found the tiger had raised many piglets and lived in a less than reputable zoo. She said they were using and abusing this as a photo opt to get money for their zoo, yet the zoo authorities did not provide for the animals very well. She asked me not to forward anything else.”

Warning

Undoubtedly most e-mails are not worth the time they take to read and forward to others.

Especially the ones that come with a warning telling you that you have to send this email to a certain number of people within five minutes and if you don't something bad will happen to you before the day ends. Sometimes it could be the other way round. Send it to such-and-such number of people and something good will happen. Surely there is no way in the world for anyone to know if you followed these instructions or if it really works. So, think about it. If you had to spend the price of a stamp to send this article as an e-mail forward, would you? The answer, I suspect, all too often is no.

Be as this may, it is yet hard not to turn your back on a forward when it lands in your inbox.

A wonderful picture of animals, a joke that makes you laugh till you cry.

The knowledge that your friends all love you. That they send you email forwards to remind you they do, not to upset, anger or offend you.

The world is a tough enough place, why add to it by spending effort and time looking for something bad in everything? If you get a virus warning don't lose sleep worrying whether it is accurate or not, just be thankful for the reminder to be careful what emails you open, and for the friend who worried about you. If you see something you don't like, delete it. As for the rest, let it be “Yaam petra inbam, peruga iv-vaiyagam”. Guess what this means? I am sure one day the forward which has the answer will land in your inbox too.

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