Malfoyish
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- Jan 31, 2004
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Would like your opinion on the following subject! First, a little background:
from snopes.com:
The Snopes were a family of characters weaved throughout the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer William Faulkner. When David Mikkelson, creator of snopes.com, first came onto the Internet in the late 1980s, he worried even back in those relatively uncrowded days that no one would remember yet another David. He was thus inspired to adopt a nom-de-Net, selecting one that honored those fictional Faulknerian characters, and began signing his newsgroups posts as "snopes."
Over the years snopes established a fearsome online reputation for his ability to thoroughly research and debunk false claims. When it came time to name our domain, Urban Legends Reference Pages seemed the obvious choice.
In 2003, I was working at Toys R Us - a man approached me and a co-worker as we were stocking shelves, and told us that he worked for a surveying company. He was lugging around a black suitcase on wheels. Inside, he claimed to have several bottles of perfume that were not yet released to the public, and it was his job to have women sample the scent and fill out a survey. My co-worker said she would be more than happy to, and rather than conduct business right there and then, the man then insisted that the survey forms were in his car. He then asked us both to accompany him to his car where he would be more than happy to have us try out some samples.
I saw red flags right there and then....told my co-worker not to go anywhere without me. I said something along the lines of, "I'll go see if there's any more of these (Care Bears, maybe) in the back, wait for me." Antonella said she would while I went in search of the closest store manager. I told him the situation and he instructed another employee to call the police. By the time I re-approached Antonella, the man had taken off - perhaps he was feeling "suspicious," or figured out that he wasn't getting either one of us out of that store. Antonella told the manager that she had repeatedly told the man that she was "on duty" and couldn't leave the store until she was finished with her shift.
He had never opened his suitcase, nor did he produce any perfume at all. I believe that his intent was to get us (or one of us) out to his car, where if he were to give us anything to "sniff," it would be chloroform, causing one or both of us to pass out. The predator would then take his prey to a secluded location, and well...you can pretty much imagine the rest.
Here's the thing - I recall reading something like this in snopes.com, or in an email that was immediately referenced against snopes and I remember thinking at the time this man approached me, "this is a complete scam, I remember hearing about this!" However, I also had to think - I'm sure he has heard of this, too. Perhaps snopes.com was where he found the idea and he (and possibly an accomplice) decided to see if it would work. It would seem to me that there are people sick enough to give it a try. After all, the main reason for snopes's success is the mere fact that some of these stories, or rather, "urban legends" have been made believeable and many are quite plausible!
So my question to you all is - is snopes.com more dangerous to society and society's well-being than it is informative? It certainly is something to think about!!
from snopes.com:
The Snopes were a family of characters weaved throughout the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer William Faulkner. When David Mikkelson, creator of snopes.com, first came onto the Internet in the late 1980s, he worried even back in those relatively uncrowded days that no one would remember yet another David. He was thus inspired to adopt a nom-de-Net, selecting one that honored those fictional Faulknerian characters, and began signing his newsgroups posts as "snopes."
Over the years snopes established a fearsome online reputation for his ability to thoroughly research and debunk false claims. When it came time to name our domain, Urban Legends Reference Pages seemed the obvious choice.
In 2003, I was working at Toys R Us - a man approached me and a co-worker as we were stocking shelves, and told us that he worked for a surveying company. He was lugging around a black suitcase on wheels. Inside, he claimed to have several bottles of perfume that were not yet released to the public, and it was his job to have women sample the scent and fill out a survey. My co-worker said she would be more than happy to, and rather than conduct business right there and then, the man then insisted that the survey forms were in his car. He then asked us both to accompany him to his car where he would be more than happy to have us try out some samples.
I saw red flags right there and then....told my co-worker not to go anywhere without me. I said something along the lines of, "I'll go see if there's any more of these (Care Bears, maybe) in the back, wait for me." Antonella said she would while I went in search of the closest store manager. I told him the situation and he instructed another employee to call the police. By the time I re-approached Antonella, the man had taken off - perhaps he was feeling "suspicious," or figured out that he wasn't getting either one of us out of that store. Antonella told the manager that she had repeatedly told the man that she was "on duty" and couldn't leave the store until she was finished with her shift.
He had never opened his suitcase, nor did he produce any perfume at all. I believe that his intent was to get us (or one of us) out to his car, where if he were to give us anything to "sniff," it would be chloroform, causing one or both of us to pass out. The predator would then take his prey to a secluded location, and well...you can pretty much imagine the rest.
Here's the thing - I recall reading something like this in snopes.com, or in an email that was immediately referenced against snopes and I remember thinking at the time this man approached me, "this is a complete scam, I remember hearing about this!" However, I also had to think - I'm sure he has heard of this, too. Perhaps snopes.com was where he found the idea and he (and possibly an accomplice) decided to see if it would work. It would seem to me that there are people sick enough to give it a try. After all, the main reason for snopes's success is the mere fact that some of these stories, or rather, "urban legends" have been made believeable and many are quite plausible!
So my question to you all is - is snopes.com more dangerous to society and society's well-being than it is informative? It certainly is something to think about!!
