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You’ve Got Mail!

This now suspended account used to have a post titled about memes called"You've Got Mail".

A very good post except for accidentally promoting the meme that says P. T. Barnum originated the sucker quote. I left the error in, but followed it up immediately with the names of the people sources claim really did say "There is a sucker born every minute."

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You’ve Got Mail!

May 26th, 2012 by Burbie52

People like to communicate in many ways. In the old days they actually wrote letters to one another, something that has almost become a thing of the past in this age of texting, emails and tweeting. Just the fact that these exist shows the need for us as humans to keep in touch with one another, without actually touching. The advent of the internet and its proliferation have increased this ability a thousandfold, so of course when Sony and other gaming systems began their online play, it was only natural that messaging of some form would become an integral part of it.

I like the messaging system that Sony has provided for us both within Home and on the XMB. In Home we have private messages, or PMs, which can be sent to anyone even if they aren’t near you. This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the circumstances. I use them to ask friends who are not near me if they are in Home, or sometimes just to help someone if I see a comment and I know the answer to their dilemma, such as how to get a reward or solve a technical issue they are having. This is a very useful tool if used the right way, but can be a annoyance if someone you don’t know sends you weird messages or uses it to troll you. I have found this to be a rare occasion, but I have heard of it from others.

On the XMB, I (like everyone else) use my messaging system to let people know about things going on in Home, or my real life occasionally. For my club, the Grey Gamers, for example, I send a message every Thursday to remind everyone about our Friday get together, though I wish there was an easier method to do this as it limits you to twelve people at a time. It takes me several minutes to edit and resend to everyone I need to. There is also the chatroom feature which can prove very useful when you are playing a video game with a friend who doesn’t have a mic. And, of course, there is also the video chat feature, if you like face-to-face talk and trust the individual involved enough to do so.

But this article isn’t really about any of these things; it is about chain letters — or perhaps a better word for them would be spam letters. You know what I mean — those messages we have all gotten since we have been in Home. The ones that tell you to send this message to everyone on your Friends List, and you will receive a $50 PlayStation Network card. That is but one variation I have seen; there are several different ones floating around out there in cyberspace.

I have to admit the first time I got one of these when I was very new to the network. I fell for it, as I’m sure many of you have. But after being admonished by my friends for it and having them explain, I never passed another to anyone again, and I now tell people who send them the same thing.

If you use common sense, you will know that Sony isn’t about to give everyone a free PSN card in any denomination. They are a company in the habit of trying to make money, not give it away (although they were very generous after the famous outage of 2011). Soon I expect one to show up that says they are giving us a reward for all the error hassle we have been experiencing.

I recently got one claiming that hackers were appearing in people’s personal estates without invites, and not to speak with them if they suddenly appeared. Apparently speaking to them was supposed to give them the ability to steal your IP number and your entire account. From what I understand, these incidences really stemmed from an accidental merging of two different peoples’ personal spaces because of a server error, so someone decided to spread this rumor through the messaging system — and, as always, it went viral.

Now delivered right to your XMB! The question that always comes to my mind when I receive these things is, why do people make them in the first place? What kind of satisfaction do they derive from it? If I send a fake claim or message to all of my friends to get the proverbial ball rolling on something like this, what is the point? Do these people like making fools of their friends? I must say I am at a loss here. Why do something like this? I asked a few people this, and their answer was the famous ❌P.T. Barnum 📛Michael Cassius McDonald 📛Joseph ("Paper Collar Joe") Bessimer 📛David Hannum. quote, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” While that might be true, it still doesn’t explain to me why they would want to make “suckers” of their friends.

In real life there were forms of these chain letters that came in the real mail. These usually asked for the recipient to send the person a dollar or two and send the letter out to all of the people on their mailing list. This was outlawed by the US Postal Service many years ago as a type of pyramid scam, so they are no longer out there, at least not that I have seen.

In the context of the PlayStation Network, however, I can’t see what purpose these silly chain letters serve. Not only that, they are against the Terms of Service agreement we all sign to gain access to it. So disseminating these to your friends can actually get you into trouble if you do it a lot and someone reports you. Here is the exact wording from the Code Of Conduct section:

“You may not take any action that SCEA considers to be disruptive to the normal flow of chat or game play, including uploading, posting, streaming, or otherwise transmitting any unsolicited or unauthorized material, including junk mails, spams, excessive mails or chain letters.”

Insert "Over 9000" joke here.

With all of this in mind, I think that we as the users of the network need to warn our friends when they do this. Some people who have been around should know better, but the newer users don’t and it would be good policy to tell them.

Est-Note: Maybe they should include a warning notice upon first use of the message box that SPAM and chain letters are reportable? It’ll give people more motivation to stop and think before adding another link to the chain – assuming they aren’t doing it on purpose to annoy everyone else.

Though the messaging system we now employ still has a way to go to be perfect, it is still a pretty good one generally. I would urge everyone who reads this that if you receive one of these spam letters, just delete it. I have some friends who have been known to delete people when they send these to them because they are so tired of them. I wish there was a way we could stop these from reaching our mailbox in the first place, like a filter that looks for key words like PSN card or Sony Entertainment, when not actually associated with Sony, and just boots them into a spam folder. I am not sure this is feasible, but it would be a nice addition to the system.

To quote Olivia quoting Monty Python, “I don’t like spam!”

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Burbie52 is a 59-year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video gaming in its many formats. She has one son who is in his mid-twenties.

Short URL:http://psho.me/tw

Jersquall says:

May 26, 2012 at 1:19 am

Spam PM’s are so very reportable. The Moderators on PSN take this seriously. I have already told my friends ”Don’t EVEN send me this junk, Report it” So they know.

Thanks for the article, burbs

Godzprototype says:

May 26, 2012 at 1:44 am

It would seem to me that most of the people who send this crap out are being told to do so.

I never even read it.

I wonder if the people who leave the groups that tell them to do these things think about it when they leave those groups? Probably not.

KrazyFace says:

May 26, 2012 at 12:55 pm

I’ve deleted people for sending me spam. I’m not easily offended by it though, in fact I warned the person who was sending this junk my way several times, which they ignored. So deletion was the only course of action.

Good idea about the spam folder Burbie, they should definitely make that happen.

Dr_Do-Little says:

May 26, 2012 at 6:16 pm

Sony did offer $10 for spending $60 in a month last year. But they sent you the message. I dont understand why peoples beleive Sony would need chain letters to pass info!

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