failure to hoax check

[LexiaFira]

The trouble is that *nobody* is going to check out every story they hear; it has to register as suspicious, and some people's sense of what is probable is skewed.

this is true, i don't sit on facebook and sites all day looking this up, just tired of specific people doing this

It's kinda like how I started to lose a friendship over calling out a lot of fake posts that she was putting up of "OMG lookit this!!!!1!!!" Of course this same person has just recently done something in my view unforgivable so I don't even try to think of her as existing anymore.

sadly its getting close to that, because i have tried nicely pointing it out that hey kinda do some research here is the site. being nice and everything. i cannot be anymore politely blunt without being rudely blunt

Another new FB trend is the Facebook Vigilantism with the "Name and shame" posts containing a person's picture and/or name, accusing them of all kinds of atrocities, or there is a picture of some horrendous act asking if anyone knows who the perpetrator is because they need to be brought to justice.
It's bloody annoying.

not here to play the name and shame, be it the whole shame these people for doing what they did, i wasn't in their shoes and i have a feeling its either very simple or very complicated so i avoid it.
also not here to play the hoax name and shame cause thats worse. Ie shame this person for spreading missinformation. nope i know that that feels like

I thankfully don't get any of these sent my way, I do get a tonne of loveydovey and empowering motivational images in my feed from the fiance of a mate oop norf but I ignore them as I am not the inteded recipitent, even get em when it's sent direct to their wall ...

Also how do you pay off Bill Gates after he's a multibillionaire? or are they going to head cannon that him being paid off helped establish Microsoft's dominance?

would love more of the empowering messages, just because it brings a smile to my face.
and yeah the bill gates one baffles me. i mean really. really this millionaire "ain't got time for that!" to quote a meme. and why would he want to give us money? (not saying bad about millionaires persay just, really? really?)

*raises hand* I, too, debunk hoaxes like that on Facebook. It annoys me to no end when people post stuff like that. The latest I saw was the whole muggers putting something on the windshield to get the person out of the car to carjack them thing...which, of course, I linked to the snopes article on. All I can say is thank whatever deity for the filters Facebook has. All I have to do is click to receive important updates, status updates only, and boom...no more hoaxy pics!

ETA: Just happened again, with one of my aunts and the whole "Lauren the co-ed evaded a rapist posing as an unmarked cop" story. WHY am I the one debunking this bs all the time??

because it sounds so true and people have the time to think this up to scare us so that when it is debunked....it starts actually happening. or it is happening and no evidence to back it up

there is ONE REAL version though, the draino in plastic bottles, that is real...and stupid

can you tell i am having a crisis today...as per the norm apparently

[LexiaFira]

A friend of mine posts those stupid hoaxes all the damn time on Facebook. I started replying with a Snopes link to them, but she just claims "Oh I don't care, what does it hurt to share them?" Umm you're spreading misinformation.....

Then she started posting the "rants" that famous people have said, which are almost always racist and offensive. When I posted the Snopes link on those she said, "Well I don't care that they never really said that , but I wish they did." So I stopped bothering and her posts have all been hidden.

makes me want to say oh then it won't "hurt you" when i do something similar like spread missinformation about (person)? oh i'm sorry does that bother (person)? well thats exactly what (person) are doing. but i don't because its wrong....

[RedRoseSpiral]

My aunt does this. When I tell her it's a hoax her response is always "Well even through it's not true, it's still good to be informed." =_=

[Ree]

When I tell her it's a hoax her response is always "Well even through it's not true, it's still good to be informed."

Yeah, I get that attitude from people too. How is it "being informed" if it's false information?

The person who complained about "Facebook police" over my debunking of the Bill Gates picture said, "What if I just find it funny?"
Well then, post the picture and say so, and don't share it as if you believe it's true!

[Pixilated]

*snip* WHY am I the one debunking this bs all the time??

Because an awful lot of people can't be bothered to check things out and/or (as somebody else has already said) have a REALLY skewed version of what's probable.

Many years ago, when I was working at the little weekly paper, we got a note from a smaller sister paper (one-person editorial staff, so she didn't have time to chase this stuff down -- but she recognized it as "Uh-oh, should be checked out.") It was a flyer circulating in the other paper's community about Procter & Gamble's link with Satanism, as clearly shown in their choice of logo (a crescent moon and 13 stars, I believe). Our editor at the time was a real go-getter and told us to call the company's head office. When I explained what we were calling about, the person on the other end of the phone groaned and said, "Not THAT again!!" It was such a bloody persistent rumour -- and this is over 20 years ago! -- they had a specially made press kit permanently on file to deal with it.

The story went to press illustrated by a sketch from a co-worker: a demon with a big grin, a toothbrush and a tube of Crest.

[Hyena Dandy]

So apparently the guy I was talking about was just trolling.

Wish he'd told me.

Respect restored.