Urban Legends Reference Pages (snopes. com)
URL	http://www.snopes.com/
Commercial?	Supported by advertisements on pages and contributions from readers
Type of site	Reference pages
Registration	Required only on forums
Owner	Barbara and David P. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it Mikkelson
Created by	Barbara and David P. Mikkelson

Snopes (pronounced /ˈsnoʊps/), also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a website that is the most widely-known resource for validating or debunking urban legends, Internet rumors, email forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin in popular American culture. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages An urban legend or urban myth is a form of modern Folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them ^[1] Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a couple from California who married after meeting on the newsgroup alt. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. folklore. urban. The couple also founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, and were credited as the owners of the site until 2005. The San Fernando Valley or The Valley is an urbanized Valley located in the north-western section of the city of Los Angeles California, United States Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[2] The site is organized according to topic and includes a messageboard where questionable stories and pictures may be posted.

History

David Mikkelson used the username "snopes" (the name of a family of often unpleasant people in the works of William Faulkner)^[3][4] in the Usenet newsgroup alt. William Faulkner (born William Cuthbert Falkner) ( September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American Author Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system folklore. urban. ^[5] Barbara Hamel was also a prolific poster. The Mikkelsons created snopes. com in 1995. ^[6] Hamel now works on the site full-time, while David, a programmer, works on the site part-time. ^[4][6]

Main site

Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site is often referenced by news media and other sites, including CNN,^[7] FOX news,^[8] and MSNBC. Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner MSNBC is a 24-hour cable television news channel based in the United States and available in Canada. ^[9] The site is so comprehensive that leading folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand has cited it as a reason why he has never created a website of his own. Jan Harold Brunvand (born 1933 is a Professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States, best known for spreading the concept ^[6] Its popular standing is such that some chain e-mail hoaxes claim to have been "checked out on 'Snopes. com'" in an attempt to discourage readers from seeking verification. ^[10]

Snopes directs people to more information about various hoaxes, especially in regard to chain e-mails. A typical chain letter consists of a Message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients 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. Bibliography (from Greek grc βιβλιογραφία bibliographia, literally "book writing" as a practice is the academic study of Books 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 is sometimes confused with The AFU and Urban Legends Archive,^[11] a similar site run by the denizens of alt. The AFU and Urban Legends Archive is a Website dedicated to Urban legends. folklore. urban, which houses that newsgroup's FAQ. FAQ is an Acronym for " Frequently Asked Question(s "

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 misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmations as well. ^[12] 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. ^[13] (The name was chosen for its acronym, T. R. O. L. L. , a reference to the early 1990s definition of the word troll to mean an Internet prank, of which David Mikkelson was a prominent practitioner. An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community such as an ^[5]) 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. A nursery rhyme is a traditional Song or Poem taught to young children originally in the nursery. Sing a Song of Sixpence is a well known English Nursery rhyme, at least as old as the eighteenth century (This parodied a real false legend surrounding "Ring a Ring o' Roses"'s link to the bubonic plague. " Ring a Ring o' Roses " or " Ring Around the Rosie " is a Nursery rhyme or folksong and Playground game. Bubonic plague is the best-known manifestation of the bacterial disease plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (formerly known as ) Although the creators were sure that no one could believe a tale so ridiculous — and had added a link^[14] at the bottom of the page to another page explaining the hoax, and a message with the ratings saying "Note: Any relationship between these ratings and reality is purely coincidental. " — eventually the legend was featured as true on an urban legends board-game and TV show. ^[15]

A television pilot based on the website called Snopes: Urban Legends was completed with Jim Davidson as host, but major networks passed on the project. Jim Davidson ( January 18, 1963) is an American Actor and model who is best known for his work on the mid-1990s television drama ^[4]

For some time, Snopes' ad provider was distributing the Zango adware product. Zango, formerly 180solutions and Hotbar, produces software that provides access to partners' games and DRM -restricted videos and software ^[16]

In Michael Crichton's novel Next, a news report claims that blonds are going extinct. Next is a 2006 Techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton. Next takes place in the present world where both the Government Blond (also spelled blonde, see below) or fair-haired is a Hair color characterized by low levels of the dark Pigment eumelanin Several chapters later, the report is debunked with Snopes cited as a source.

References

External links

• Snopes.com