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for: Snopes trilogy
Snopes ( ), also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a web site that is the best-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin in American popular culture. Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California couple who met on the alt.folklore.urban newsgroup. The Mikkelsons also founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, and were credited as the owners of the site until 2005. The site is organized according to topic and includes a message board where stories and pictures of questionable veracity 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) in the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban.See Michele Tepper, "Usenet Communities and the Cultural Politics of Information" in David Porter, ed., Culture (1997) at 48 ("1he two most notorious trollers in AFU, Ted Frank and snopes, are also two of the most consistent posters of serious research."). Barbara Hamel was also a prolific poster. The Mikkelsons created the site in 1995. Barbara and David now work on the site full time.
Main site
Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, including CNN, FOX news, MSNBC and Australia's ABC on its 'Media Watch' program. Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand considers the site so comprehensive as to obviate the necessity for launching one of his own. Snopes's 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. As of March 2009, the site has around 6.2 million visitors per month.
Snopes directs people to more information about various hoaxes, especially in regard to chain e-mails. 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. Although they claim to research their topics heavily and provide references when possible, not all of their sources (especially 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.
"Lost Legends"
In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of overreliance on authority, the Mikkelsons created a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that they term The Repository of Lost Legends. (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.)
