Xref: utzoo soc.net-people:1006 misc.headlines:5225 misc.misc:4200 news.misc:2432 sci.psychology:1198
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!actnyc!gcf
From: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: soc.net-people,misc.headlines,misc.misc,news.misc,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: David's Last Wish Hoax Hoax
Keywords: He's trying for a world record urban myth
Message-ID: <1097@actnyc.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 88 19:32:28 GMT
References: <4592@homxc.UUCP>
Reply-To: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Organization: InterACT Corporation
Lines: 28

In article <4592@homxc.UUCP> rick@homxc.UUCP (R.BUTTAFOGO) writes:
}There is a young boy by the name of David at the Sloan Kettering Cancer
}Hospital who is terminally ill.  His last wish is to be in the Guiness
}Book of World Records for having received the MOST Christmas cards EVER.
}Therefore, they have started a campaign to honor his last wish, and rather
}simple, request.  If anyone would like to take the time to send David a
}Christmas card, please mail it to: ....

A number of follow-ups have protested this message.  However, I think
it's one of the more interesting examples of net pathology.  At first,
these hoax-protest syndromes were spaced about six months apart.  Now,
apparently, the cycle time is rapidly becoming shorter, or we have
seen the appearance of overlapping cycles in different phases.

I would like the original poster, allegedly rick@homxc.UUCP (R.BUTTAFOGO),
to tell us what or who induced him or her to post this message even as
another, very similar, message, was being decried as a hoax.  Considering
some of the postings I've seen, it's easy to believe there are people
on the net who are aware of nothing that happened more than three months 
ago; but it's hard to figure how someone could forget everything before
the last three minutes.  So how about it, R.BUTTAFOGO?  I want to know.
I'm aware that there are pseudoposters lurking about, so if you have
been victimized by one of these, tell us.

I'm cross-posting this to sci.psychology in the hope that someone
there can give an explanation and prognosis for the David endemic.

(...!uunet!actnyc!gcf)