Let me start by saying this is a personal statement, coming from someone who has solicited signatures for -- and signed -- many, many paper petitions, and yet who is doing his best to discourage the use of chain mail.

What do you do with an e-mail petition or request to pass on certain e-mail text to a business or political or religious or non-profit leader? Philanthropy and altruism are always a potential tug-of-war between head and heart, and you have to decide which one will rule each decision you make. All I'm trying to do here is to offer a few thoughts for the head side. If you have other contrary or supportive considerations that you'd like to see included here, send them to me. I'll at least consider them :-)

My thoughts

This page was prompted by inquiries sent to me as host of this anti-hoax site, about a petition in early 1999 concerning alleged mistreatment of women by the Taliban in Pakistan. But the thoughts have been running through my head since the flood of e-mail in late 1998 concerning the hurricane disaster in Honduras, soliciting money to be sent to specific bank accounts. I am not a Scrooge, nor hard-hearted, and have supported causes I have believed to be worthwhile. But I also have spent 17 years on various incarnations of the Internet. . .

1. Do you trust the basic assumptions of the mailing? Our view of the world is strongly colored by the coverage (or lack thereof) in the American press. Although in many ways we have an incredible press corps, there is frequently a large gulf between the portrayal of the world we see here and the portrayal of the same world seen through the eyes of the presses of other countries. There is no answer to this other than to either believe blindly, or start looking for often-hard-to-find resources to check on what you're hearing.

2. Is this petition designed to accomplish what it wants you to think it will? Even if the basic assumptions are correct, is what you are being asked to do feasible or relevant to the issue? CAN you count the 50 names before sending it to the recommended address (where are those names), and does that address make any sense for this purpose? For instance,
   1. In my help desk work, I have seen a number of petitions or chain mail items specifically intended to harass the person to whom the "completed" petitions are supposed to be sent.
   2. Is there any credible way that a petition designed as the one under consideration can have any effect at all on the alleged target?
   3. Requests for money positively scream "SCAM!"

3. Is your "signature" going to count for anything? Even if (1) and (2) are doing well, it is my understanding that many potential target people for such petitions (such as members of Congress) don't take e-mail nearly as seriously as regular mail because it is so easy to dash off without thinking -- you have to really CARE to get a stamp and stick it on and find a mailbox -- even if it is an organization-generated pre-thought-out card.

4. Why should the petition's target believe it? On a paper petition, it is certainly possible to forge 10,000 signatures, but it takes a LOT of work to make them look credible. But it's easy to write a simple program that will generate 100,000 convincing but false e-mail signatures. Who's going to check them? Certainly not the people you are trying to persuade, especially if they're not going to appreciate what you're telling them in the first place.

5. What does the message look like? Because I handle the anti-hoax site where you are reading this, people pass on to me petitions and other chain mail for comment. The endless headers (essential for petitions, of course) and trailers (worthless) and quote marks ("> > > > >") and "forwarded message" bars make many of these documents irritating -- if not downright impossible -- to read. Yet people tend to pass these on directly (often adding more clutter of their own) without thinking. Do you want to do this to X number of people downstream from you? Do you care enough about the subject to clean the message up a bit to encourage others to sign it? If not, is your signature worth anything?

Other people's thoughts
(if anyone comments, in no particular order)

Reviewed: 9 August 2002
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions should be directed to "mdk12-editor 'at' umd.edu"