[SGVLUG] Looking for a better "snopes" site

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Marsden MacRae
> 
> Emerson, Tom wrote:
> > Every now and then I get something from someone that is (to me) a
> > well known internet "urban legend", chain-mail, or otherwise not
> > worth promoting/repeating anymore.  My usual response is to return a
> > link to the particular myth write-up on snopes, <snip> 
> > 
> > Does anyone have a recommendation for a snopes-like site [explaining
> > sources of urban/internet legends] that doesn't have a high
> > "annoyance" factor?  (pop-ups, pop-unders,
> > potentially-malware-infested links, etc.)
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> I like to use
> http://urbanlegends.about.com/index.htm?terms=urban+legends
> 
> Haven't had any trouble with popups and their search engine 
> finds what i 
> want pretty quickly


Hmmmm... you must have some sort of pop-up blocker already enabled [perhaps firefox? (*)] because I got one the instant I went to the page [a credit card offering with ".ru" in the address... hmmm...]  {ok, that was nasty -- it was actually .ru4.somethingelse I think, but even still, it failed the "no pop-ups" outright}

secondly, how and/or where do you search for legends?  The generic "search" box returns, in this order:

   1) sponsered links containing your search terms
   2) links "in this section" [guess that would be "legends..." here]
   3) links ANYWHERE in about.com

either way, didn't find the "picture of an iceberge from top to bottom" -- in fact, the only "iceberg" reference returned [under "in this section"] was to an old e-mail hoax of "bill gates is the antichrist" with all sorts of (incorrect) numerological "proofs" that his name, windows 95, and even "the world wide web" [expressed as vivivi, with the i's in italics] adds up to or expresses 666.  [and an expose' of an old Excel95 "easter egg" wherein you can find the "hall of tortured souls" (the dev's themselves, it seems) in a doom-like walkthrough -- boy, bet you're glad your spreadsheet can do 3d first-person shooters, now aren't you?]  It found that only because somewhere in the text of the e-mail, it used the phrase "but that's only the tip of the iceberg"

There is/was another pop-up, but of the more-or-less intended to be helpful (or at the very least, not directly trying to sell you something) variety in that it gave "related links" (from elsewhere within about.com) to the page you just opened.

Tom 

(*) While it may be true that installing & using firefox would be a nice way to tame the snopes pop-up beast, I can almost GUARANTEE that folks sending me these items in the first place are NOT using firefox...