Urban Legends Reference Pages

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Image:Snopes 040406.png The Urban Legends Reference Pages, also known as snopes.com, is a website dedicated to determining the truth about many urban legends, modern-day myths, internet rumors and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin. Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a couple from California who met on the newsgroup alt.folklore.urban and married. The site is organized according to topic and includes a messageboard where questionable stories and pictures may be posted.

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Main Site

The Mikkelsons' work has been effective in debunking or confirming widely spread urban legends. The site is referenced by numerous other sites, directing people to more information about various hoaxes, especially in regard to chain e-mails. Although they research their topics heavily and provide references when possible, not all of their sources (especially those which are personal interviews, phone calls, or e-mails) are fully verifiable. Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" if the Mikkelsons feel there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.

The site should not be confused with The AFU and Urban Legends Archive [1], a similar site run by the denizens of alt.folklore.urban, which houses that newsgroup's FAQ. (In fact, there is considerable animosity between some longtime AFU "old hats" and the Mikkelsons.)

The Mikkelsons have stressed the reference portion of the name Urban Legends Reference Pages, indicating that their intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm myths but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmations as well. In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on authority, the Mikkelsons created a series of made-up urban folklore tales which they termed The Repository Of Lost Legends. Its acronym signalled that they were trolling. One fictional legend averred that the children's nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence was really a coded reference used by pirates to recruit members. (This parodied a real false legend surrounding Ring Around the Rosie's link to the bubonic plague.) Although the creators were sure that no one could believe a tale so ridiculous – and had added a link at the bottom of the page to another page explaining the hoax – eventually the legend was featured as true on an urban legends board-game and TV show. Whether this meant their plan backfired or succeeded is in the eye of the beholder.

Critics have accused the Mikkelsons of political bias. However, they have various articles that are both critical and supportive of various political beliefs.

The name snopes comes from the name of a family in the works of writer William Faulkner.

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Forums

The ULRP has a reasonably vibrant forums community. The community, who call themselves "snopesters" (lowercase "s") have their own lingo, such as NFBSK (Not For British School Kids, a euphemism for adult subjects or language), Waffles (for when posters accidentally double post), YOMANK (You Owe Me A New Keyboard, their equivalent to LOL), and other expressions.

The current forums have been around roughly since 2000, replacing the two old forums, as shown in this post. The current forums are powered by UBB Classic.

The forums have a variety of subforums with different areas of discussions, grouped together, such as a group of forums devoted to discussions of different types of Urban Legends, a group of forums devoted to general talk, with forums about Real Life, Current Events, a forum for rants (Rantidote), and a forum for suggestions about new forum features.

There is also a forum about Glurge (Glurge Gallery) and Hurricane Katrina, as well as a forum where threads from the Rantidote forum that get out of control go (Petty Bickering), a forum for jokes, a forum for technological discussions (Technobabble) and a forum for bizarre emails sent in through the comments section (We've Got Mail!).

There are also archived versions of forums, to save space in the current versions of the forums, but not every forum has an archived version. Also, many older threads have been deleted, but there are plenty of older threads that still exist.

The forums regularly have different themes, centered around a concept. With each theme, there is a near-universal color scheme (with only some of the forums staying another color scheme all the time) and theme related member statuses (users can sometimes use their own custom member statuses, or a pre-approved, default, member status for their postcount level; but, custom member statuses are not always allowed).

The organization of the forum groups has seen minor changes in the past, but currently stands composed as:

  • Urban Legends
  • Non-UL Chat
  • SLC Central
  • Diversions
  • About This Site
  • Archived Forums

David and Barbara Mikkelson are active participators on the forums, with David going by the name "snopes" (lowercase "s") and Barbara going simply as "Barbara".

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See also

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External links

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