Talk:Chain e-mail


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

move for consistency reasons. Feel free to open a WP:RM at Talk:E-mail, though. &mdash; Nightst a  llion  (?) 12:16, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Requested move
Chain email → Chain e-mail: Spelling per dictionary and other pages in E-mail category. Redirect with multiple edits already exists at destination, so requires administrator.
 * Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your vote with ~ 


 * Support Barefootguru 20:43, 15 February 2006 (UTC) (proposer)
 * Support JethroElfman 22:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I prefer "email", but I think it ought to match the linked article which is currently "e-mail". JethroElfman 20:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Oppose: where long ago e-mail was once more common, email is now much more common. Would support moving other articles to email. Jonathunder 16:38, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose as per Jona. -- Jeandré, 2006-02-18t19:06z


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Remove of copyrighted material
I have removed the versions of the article that contained the copyright stuff. Note that this article also has some revisions of the previous article that was in this location before the move. For the record, in case this operation has to be performed again, here is the list of removed revisions:

# 13:34, 24 February 2006. . Pearle (Changing to ) # 04:14, 24 February 2006. . 82.46.76.125 # 04:13, 24 February 2006. . 82.46.76.125 # 19:28, 22 February 2006. . Barefootguru (Email E-Mail per page name (and dictionary)) # 12:17, 20 February 2006. . Nightstallion (moved Chain email to Chain e-mail: WP:RM) # 08:37, 15 February 2006. . 218.188.225.186 (Research of Internet rumour yet to be conducted) # 08:35, 15 February 2006. . 218.188.225.186 # 14:02, 17 May 2005. . Timwi (fix double-redirect) # 00:57, 9 February 2005. . Carrp (redirect to Electronic mail) # 00:56, 9 February 2005. . Carrp (redirect to e-mail not Chainmail) # 00:55, 9 February 2005. . Neutrality (#REDIRECT Chain letter) # 00:55, 9 February 2005. . Nadavspi (redirect Chainmail) # 00:54, 9 February 2005. . Nadavspi # 00:54, 9 February 2005. . 68.71.218.118

- Liberatore(T) 19:06, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

List of e-mail scams?
I'd love if wikipedia started putting together a list of e-mail scams. I just got a great new one telling me "CONGRATULATION!!! (no s) YOU WIN $500 FROM MICROSOFT." Is there any such database to keep people alerted? Or just to laugh at? But seriously, it would make sense as a sort of scam watch, like the police put out. Darkhawk (19 Mar, 2006 @ 21:36 EST)

Proposed merger
Proposing a merger into chain letter because, as the first line of the article states, a chain e-mail is really just the Internet incarnation of a chain letter.


 * As the one proposing this merger, obviously I support it. --Stratadrake 12:31, 23 October 2006 (UTC)


 * oppose. While just an Internet incarnation of the good ol' chain letter, the nature of the new media makes this a whole new concept.  I am not sure if themes like urban legends, alleged bad corporate practices, jokes, bonsai cats, cellphone giveaways, etc. are covered by chain letter.  --Carlos Th (talk) 02:33, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * And right when I was about to assume "no objection" to the proposal and do the merge myself... Anyway, let's avoid confusing e-mail based chain letters with ordinary bulk e-mail; after all, chain letters are generally recognized by a specific instruction to copy/forward the letter to x number of recipients; things which are forwarded voluntarily (without specifically being told to, such as the infamous Goodtimes virus) do not necessarily meet that criterion. --Stratadrake 03:05, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Personally, I think they are the same, sure the nature of it being online is different than actually mailing it, but integrating them together would probably serve both articles better, as it could show the progression of chain letters. The current chain e-mail article appears to confuse a hoax or deceptive e-mail with what a chain e-mail really is. I'll get around to working on what really is or isn't a chain e-mail at some point in the near future, but frankly, once that's cleaned up, I can't see that there would be much of a difference between the two. Radagast83 02:53, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * If it is just a hoax, well, it is just a hoax and not necesarily a chain letter. OTOH if at the end of the hoax there is a call to forward it (frex, to help stopping what it is aleged in the hoax), then the hoax is now also a chain letter.  This would be a rather uncommon practice on paper/snail-mail chain letters, so those chain letters would mostly rely on superstition.  Email chain letters rely on a much greater range of ways to get the chain flow.
 * On the other hand, paper/snail-mail chain letters are not actually a good method to gather addresses that would eventually become target to unsolicited commertial mail... there are differences also in the purposes of email chain letters and paper/snail-mail chain letters.
 * &mdash; Carlos Th (talk) 22:12, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I just don't see how that can preclude e-mail chain letters from being a sub-section of a chain letter. There are literally thousands of things on wikipedia that, while essentially the same overall subject, have their differences. Radagast83 02:11, 20 January 2007 (UTC)