From: Kennita Watson (kwatson@netcom.com)
Date: Mon Dec 16 1996 - 05:36:20 MST
I wrote:
>>Max M -- this is just another name for a chain letter. Please don't you or
>>anyone else send chain letters (even supposedly amusing ones) to this list.
>
Chris Hind responded:
>Awwww. I don't find it all that harmless.
My point exactly (I know, it's not what you intended, but I like it anyway).
>It's not to be taken seriously.
>If you don't like it then simply delete it.
However (to paraphrase), "One can die as surely from a million pinpricks
as from a single sword thrust.". I get plenty of junk mail from random
ad agencies -- et tu, Chris? (Max, actually, in case he's still following
this.)
The danger in the snowball and all chain letters is their exponential
nature. The note isn't just sent to 100 people and back -- it's sent to
"everybody you know". I personally could make it to over 1000 people
easily -- I wonder how many each of them can reach? Follow that exponential
growth curve out a few steps and the traffic could become dizzying, and
well-connected people could end up getting dozens of copies without sending
out a single one -- no wonder chain letters have such a bad rep! Some
net.gurus I know have been predicting the meltdown of the Internet backbones
for a while now (apparently it's already started) -- this sort of thing
certainly doesn't help matters.
Kennita (wondering why she doesn't just fiddle while Rome burns)
Kennita Watson | The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
kwatson@netcom.com| but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do
| members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
| -- Richard Bach, _Illusions_
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