Are You Offended When Told You Forwarded a Hoax?

We see this type of situation a lot online nowadays. A whole bunch of people just love to correct others or be perceived as more knowledgeable. Guess they have a ton of time on their hands.

But on the other hand, no matter how nicely you may correct someone — they don’t appreciate being corrected. I’ve been on both sides of this type of situation. So, on that note, here’s a question from a site visitor:

I forwarded a certain photograph to a group of people. One of the people on the email list sent back to the list (whom she did not know) that the photo was fake. She 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 out to my list of 4 others. But what I felt was rude was her comment that “she always checked out her emails 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?

Net M@nners

Site Visitor

Don’t be a Show-boater

It would have been better for her to have made her correction directly to you as the Sender — not your entire list. However, she did nothing wrong by letting everyone know the photo was not authentic, especially if you had everyone’s email address displayed.

There are two issues to discuss here. First, if we don’t want others on our list to know or respond to those listed, put their email addresses in the BCc: field. That is your call to make, after all.

Next, stating she checks things out before forwarding sounds like an intelligent thing to do. Considering all the junk and misinformation being forwarded around, why wouldn’t you? If you had checked this out, you wouldn’t have sent an inaccurate email — would you?

If offered kindly, take corrections via email with grace.

Vetting Before Sending

Good Netiquette dictates you do not just forward anything that lands in your inbox as true or accurate. You should make the extra effort at any of the various websites that cover urban legends. One of which is VerifyThis.com.

If we do not take the time to vet emails before forwarding, we 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.

Rather than look at the person as rude, why not send her a short “thank you” with your humble apologies, thanking her for letting you know? Admitting that you still have things to learn indicates a person worth communicating with.

You now know to check things out before forwarding. I also have an article on my site called 5 Rules of Forwarding Email that you might find helpful in your quest for knowledge.

Everyone still has things to learn online – I know something new daily, and I’ve been online for over two decades. There is nothing wrong with that – that is what makes online so exhilarating!

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