Doug Green

If you're reading this, you either found my using google, found it because you follow me on twitter, or you're a friend or family member who's just reading my blog. If you're in one of the first two groups, just read this, it's funny:

• All Dogs go to Heaven

However, for those who don't know about snopes, or who pass emails without fact checking them, misinformation and lies can do harm, to you and others, read on...

I just received a cute and funny email about a church sign debate over whether dogs go to heaven. I laughed out-loud and was about to repost it on the blog, when I did a quick fact check, since the email was not sent as a fictional joke, but as a real story that was funny. It turned out to be fictional.

Please, please, before forwarding any email to anyone (especially me), please please fact check it. It takes ten seconds to type the title of the email into google. Nine times out of ten, you'll save yourself some embarrassment.

The story about the church debate is a rather innocuous example of emails that make their rounds. No harm, no found, and it's funny. But a few years ago I received an email from a good friend about an anti-semetic story that had her very upset. She forwarded it to me, and everyone she could think of. It turned out to be untrue, and when I showed this to her, she was quite embarrassed, correcting the story with everyone she'd already sent it to.

Be responsible, Avoid the embarrassment, fact check!