Rude or Uniformed?

A Site Visitor Writes:

I forwarded a certain photograph to a group of people. One of the people on the e-mail list sent back to the whole list (whom she did not know) that the photo was a fake. She looked it up on www.snopes.com. She also stated that "she always checked on the accuracy of things before she forwarded." This went out to all the other people on my list.

I was not upset that the photo was not authentic. I was a little miffed that she sent to out to my list of 4 others. But what I felt was really rude was her comment that "she always checked out her e-mails for accuracy before forwarding". So, one would assume that I did not do a good job at these things or I would have done the same. I felt that her comment was really rude. What do you think? Lack of netiquette?

Seems one of the folks you send to is an informed Netizen! She did nothing wrong by letting everyone know the photo was not authentic if you had everyone's e-mail address displayed. The number of folks who assume everything in an e-mail is true or accurate is surprising! Don't we all get enough junk e-mail without having those who are uninformed (or don't make the effort to be informed) sending more junk through the pipeline?

There are two things to address here. If you don't want others on your list to know or respond to those listed, put their e-mail addresses in the BCC field. That is your call to make. And why shouldn't this person respond to all that you had forwarded a hoax to so that they know it was not authentic?

Her comment wasn't rude. What is rude about that-- if that is what she does--check Snopes.com before forwarding? That sounds like a smart thing to do considering all the junk and misinformation being forwarded around. If you had checked this out you certainly wouldn't of proceeded to send out an inaccurate e-mail as though it was--would you? Plus she didn't say you didn't do a good job. It just sounds as though she is sharing a resource and some habits of proper Netiquette with you.

If anything the lack of Netiquette is on your part. In my Netiquette 101, Courtesy #1 which is called: GET TO KNOW THE BASICS, item #5 covers just this situation - even noting Snopes.com. I assume you have not reviewed my site before you e-mailed for my advice...

Good Netiquette dictates you do NOT just forward anything that lands in your inbox as true or real. You should make the extra effort to check out things like this at any of the various Web sites that point out these urban legends, only one of which is Snopes.com.

If you or the original sender did not want to take the time to vet this e-mail before sending it on it's way, you certainly cannot get mad when someone who does make these efforts points out to you that it is a hoax and simply states they always check things for accuracy before forwarding.

I assume by your tone, that I am certainly not giving you the response you seek here. I believe your friend did you a favor. Why not take it as you learned something new and not do it again?

In your case, what I would do, is rather than look at the person as rude, which they were not, why not send her a short "thank you" with your humble apologies thanking her for letting you know about Snopes.com and that you know you still have things to learn. You now know to check things out before simply forwarding and she provided you the resource to do just that.

I also have an article on my site called the 5 Rules of Forwarding E-mail.

Why is it when folks do things wrong online and someone tries to inform them they get all offended? I sure hope you are not mad at me or will call me rude simply because I do not agree with how you handled the situation.

Everyone still has things to learn online - I learn something new every day and I've been online for over a decade. There is nothing wrong with that - that is what makes online so exhilarating! ;-)