I have received 5 chain emails in my mailbox today claiming that when I forward it to a douzen other people putting my name in it would help the victims of the tsunami in asia.
How? How can miljons of emails help those who most of them haven’t got computers (anymore, or never had) to receive email!
Usualy people forward one email to 10 others at least, the count on most emails I received was 400. So lets assume that every forwards the email 10 times, and this continues for 400 times:
10 ** 400 == 1e400
That are actually more emails than people in the world, usualy people get the same mail back from someone else later in the chain.
Lets assume that 500 miljon people receive a certain chain mail à 100 KB bandwidth for the sender and receiver combined.
That makes 500 milj times 100 KB is 50 TB..
1 Gig usualy costs a provider lets say 5 cents: 5 cents times 50 TB is $2500.
If we would just don’t forward chain mails but all send a simple postcard to asia we would let them show we care and we would save $2500 for the mail providers who will lower prises, which will result in more money for users which eventually results in more money for the world economy including asia!
Never forward a chain mail
I would like to use this moment to say I am shocked by the tsunami in Asia and I do care for the miljons over there, I hope this single post will convince at least one person to stop forwarding mails, that would save an average of about $100 over some time, my donation for them.