Athe!st-Cha!n-Letter Campa!gn

[JustBusiness17]

Anyone else annoyed with the amount of misinformation and cute religious messages (AKA propaganda) that is spreading around online via email? It's so bad I often open snopes before checking my indox. That might be a mild exageration...

I have some thoughts on how an email chain letter campaign could be done effectively if anyone wants to brainstorm..

Bonus: Drive traffic towards this site.

 

[e2iPi]

Anyone else annoyed with the amount of misinformation and cute religious messages (AKA propaganda) that is spreading around online via email? It's so bad I often open snopes before checking my indox. That might be a mild exageration...

I have some thoughts on how an email chain letter campaign could be done effectively if anyone wants to brainstorm..

Bonus: Drive traffic towards this site.

Chain letters do little other than annoy the recipients.

Plus, we can't provide any impetus to forward said letter.

"If you don't forward this letter to at least 10 people in the next 10 minutes....absolutely nothing will happen, you will not have bad luck, you will probably not die, and no ghost will come to haunt you. On the other hand, if you DO forward this letter, well, absolutely nothing will happen, you will not get promoted, gain unearned wealth and the love of your life will not mysteriously appear at your door. You will get put on several "ignore" lists and your general standing in the community will fall, but hey, that's a small price to pay for...well.....absolutely nothing."

-1

 

[JustBusiness17]

Chain letters do little other than annoy the recipients.

Thats a bold statement. Advertising can be perceived quite positively if the recipient gains value from the product. Many people opt-in to email newsletters that they find valuable.

Plus, we can't provide any impetus to forward said letter.

How about "Send this to 15 people in the next ten minutes and you will soon enjoy a better more rational future"

But seriously, unless you're a firm believer in NLP and hypnotic advertising, there's little reason to believe those silly ultimatums even work. 10 years ago, maybe, but most people have wised up, I'm sure.

The nature of viral marketing is that people forward information they enjoy. Developing that content would be one of the primary challenges of this project, however, interesting/important information seems to be abundant in the freethinker community.

 

[Aught3]

Well I agree that in order not to just be wasting peoples time this sort of email would need to provide a benefit to the receiver. What do you think this site and the people here have to offer?

 

[e2iPi]

The nature of viral marketing is that people forward information they enjoy. Developing that content would be one of the primary challenges of this project, however, interesting/important information seems to be abundant in the freethinker community.

You make a valid point. I'm all for putting out an informative and interesting newsletter of sorts.

-1

 

[5810Singer]

Anyone else annoyed with the amount of misinformation and cute religious messages (AKA propaganda) that is spreading around online via email?

Nope. I haven't received one email like that in the whole time I've been online.

 

[Mapp]

Why should atheists surrender the ethical high ground by resorting to spamming people's mailboxes. That's the kind of bullshit Christians, whose social filters have been overwhelmed by fairy tales do.

 

[JustBusiness17]

Why should atheists surrender the ethical high ground by resorting to spamming people's mailboxes. That's the kind of bullshit Christians, whose social filters have been overwhelmed by fairy tales do.

I'm glad people are bringing issues to the table. Now lets make it constructive:

"Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately." (wikipedia)

As mentioned above, an opt-in newsletter is one option that is impossible to consider unethical. Another option would be to target a market segment that is likely to find the information beneficial. Again, perceived value is the key!

*Lets officially take indiscriminate messaging off the table.


I am going to make an important distinction here: Spam generally consists of commercial content that is sent from a spammer to a recipient with the process stopping there. Chain-letters are sent down a chain and spread through social networks (in the traditional sense) based on the merrits of the message itself.


When I look at this I see a need for the promotion of logic and reason. Countering misinformation in a world as connected as this simply cannot be achieved through passive methods.

 

[JustBusiness17]

Anyone else annoyed with the amount of misinformation and cute religious messages (AKA propaganda) that is spreading around online via email?

Nope. I haven't received one email like that in the whole time I've been online.

You're not missing much. It basically consists of a quaint anecdote or urband legend and the moral of the story is that baby jesus likes kissing himself.


@Aught3: I didn't join this site just to get help for this little idea. I joined as a long time youtuber who likes what LOR represents. Realistically, I could care less about an chain letter campaign. I just came up with the idea 5 minutes before posting it. The briliance of organizing is that work can be shared and divided. An organization (especially one like LOR) would be a terrible thing to waste. Are there any other projects on the go right now? I would love to help.

 

[Prolescum]

Personally, I receive no spam. Haven't for the best part of a decade - not even in the backup account.
The only vaguely similar thing I get is from my father who once or twice a year sends one of those terrible joke compilations.

 

[Nyar]

I think most people when recieve an E-Mail that looks like spam they just erase it without even read it... So this iniciative would certainly end up in the Spam bin for the most part and enraging the fundamentalist on a minor scare... perhaps they even end up using this campaign to talk about how "religious" the "evil" atheists are spreading their "gospel" on the internet...
I'm just so sick of reading that ridiculous claim of an atheist religion.

 

[JustBusiness17]

...enraging the fundamentalist on a minor scare... perhaps they even end up using this campaign to talk about how "religious" the "evil" atheists are spreading their "gospel" on the internet...
I'm just so sick of reading that ridiculous claim of an atheist religion.

I actually like when the religious get up in arms about this kind of stuff. The media response to all the billboard and bus campaigns was a huge win for atheism. Far more people were exposed the the message than the number of people who could have been exposed to the ads under normal conditions. Maybe some people got upset and withdrew even further, but its all about planting the seed.

One way or another, the fundies are going to try and spread their religion. A little pressure puts them into defense mode... If we push them into a corner and force a response, they'll keep saying more an more stupid shit that does not compute. Reactionary response from religion will do more harm than good.


The content could even address your concern by providing information about atheism not being a religion...

 

[xman]

"If you don't forward this letter to at least 10 people in the next 10 minutes....absolutely nothing will happen, you will not have bad luck, you will probably not die, and no ghost will come to haunt you. On the other hand, if you DO forward this letter, well, absolutely nothing will happen, you will not get promoted, gain unearned wealth and the love of your life will not mysteriously appear at your door. You will get put on several "ignore" lists and your general standing in the community will fall, but hey, that's a small price to pay for...well.....absolutely nothing."

This or this sort of thing is brilliant as a Reply All to the chain letters themselves.

 

[JustBusiness17]

"If you don't forward this letter to at least 10 people in the next 10 minutes....absolutely nothing will happen, you will not have bad luck, you will probably not die, and no ghost will come to haunt you. On the other hand, if you DO forward this letter, well, absolutely nothing will happen, you will not get promoted, gain unearned wealth and the love of your life will not mysteriously appear at your door. You will get put on several "ignore" lists and your general standing in the community will fall, but hey, that's a small price to pay for...well.....absolutely nothing."

This or this sort of thing is brilliant as a Reply All to the chain letters themselves.

Actually, your right... With the righte formatting, that would work really well. We should probably use qualifiers to express that if any of those things do happen, correlation does not prove causation. Or, we could just finish it with something like:

"If you do encounter a change of luck, we can assure you, it had nothing to do with forwarding this message, no matter how impossibly coincidental it may feel. Always remember, correlation does not prove causation. and all events have naturalistic explanations."

What do you think of this:

"If you think your faith is strong, you need not worry -pass it on "


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Am I the only one getting a good feeling about this. It could be fun and its completely harmless until we hit 'send'... When I have time 2moro, I'll start a google docs file and share it with anyone interested. If someone wants to take the initiative, just leave a post and PM the details.

PS: Sorry for barging in on this community. I "pray" that I'm welcome here! ( 0_o )

 

[e2iPi]

"If you think your faith is strong, you need not worry -pass it on "

I'm liking the idea.. Love this line :twisted:

-1

 

[felixthecoach]

This topic made me lol much. Thanks a lot.