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Humor and Urban Legends (a.k.a. HURL)
FAQ
Revision 1

Why does this board exist?

Hopefully if people have an outlet to share the interesting email forwards they receive, they will refrain from forwarding everything they get to everyone in their address book. And those of us who do not want to subscribe to ten different humor mailing lists can just drop by this board for a good laugh.

What kinds of things should I post?

Anything you find funny. Anything you know is an Urban Legend that you find interesting. Anything you suspect might be an Urban Legend but you want to confirm with the rest of the board.

Are vulgar and profane jokes ok?

Well, theoretically, TMF guidelines apply to this board just as they do to every other board. "Cuss" words are often frowned upon and posts containing them frequently get removed. "Gross" jokes or sexually explicit jokes usually don't get pulled. All we can say is, you should obey the Fool's Rules. Other than that, post it. Just be aware that some people Fool Alert content they find offensive. There are no guarantees.

What kinds of things should I avoid posting?

1) Spam.
2) Spam.
3) Spam.

Chain letters, advertisements, anything that tells you that, "you will get $439.72 for every person you forward this email to," and pleas to help little Suzie with a brain tumor by "sending this email to as many people as possible," are all SPAM. Be gone with you.

Should I reply to one joke with another, or post under a new subject?

Sometimes it is appropriate to create a thread of related jokes by replying to one joke with another that has a similar theme. But be aware that some people read only the posts with subject lines that interest them. On a board such as this, there are people that will avoid all long threads. It's usually best to post under a new subject.

If someone posts an Urban Legend, should I post a link to Snopes.com or some other site that debunks it?

About 3/4 of the posters on this board either don't mind seeing links to Snopes or even enjoy reading them and learning about the origins of the legends. The other 1/4 seem to get offended when people reply to their UL posts with Snopes links. It's a toss up. But if majority rules, then Snopes links are acceptable.

Is it ok if I post a joke that's already been posted to this board?

The most hotly contested topic on this board. It's pretty evenly divided, but it appears a slim majority prefer to not have to deal with the same joke being repeated in a short time frame. Many people don't seem to care if the same joke gets repeated back to back to back for a week straight, they figure you can just hit the "Next" button if you've seen it before. As a general rule, it would be courteous to the large number of readers of the board who do not want to see the same joke over and over if you do a quick search of the board before posting something. At the top of this page you will see the word "Search:" followed by a white blank. You can type in one or two unique key words from your joke that are unlikely to appear in many other jokes and see if it has already been posted in the past six months. The search function only goes back six months, but no one cares if a joke gets repeated after that much time has passed.

If someone posts a repeat joke, should I reply and point out that it's already been posted?

Your call. Many people get really upset when you point out that they've just posted something that was already posted only a week earlier. Some people will handle it well and even apologize for repeating a joke in such a short time frame. It goes back to the divide between those who don't care and those who do care about repeats. Use your best judgement.

Should I just cut-and-paste all the forwards I receive by email?

Well, assuming you already understand that spam is unwelcome, and assuming you've done a search to see if it's been posted in the last six months, you're free to post as many forwards as you want. But it is greatly appreciated by nearly everyone when you "clean up" your cut-and-paste posts. Many of us reformat them entirely so they look like any other post on TMF. If you really just can't be bothered with that kind of effort, the bare minimum we all appreciate is for you to remove the ">" from the beginnings of all the lines.

How do I reformat a post, such as removing all the ">" from the beginnings of the lines?

Cut-and-paste the text into any word processor, even "WordPad" which comes with every version of Windows (and is found under Start>Programs>Accessories) will work. Select Edit>Replace then type in ">" (without the quotation marks) in the "Find what:" blank, leave the "Replace with:" blank completely empty, and click "Replace All." You can do that with any undesirable character or phrase in the text. If you really want to dress it up, you can go to the first line of text, hit the "End" key, hit the "Delete" key, hit the down arrow key, "End" key, "Delete" key, down arrow key, "End" key, "Delete" key, and so on ad infinitum until all the line breaks are gone.


Now start reading the jokes and Urban Legends. Most of all, relax and have fun!
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