Just received this and was moved so decided to share with you all

Exactly, Bags If a chain letter tells us to send £10 to the first person on the list, cross that name off and add your own, and pass it on, otherwise we will get seven years of bad luck - we throw it in the bin. They are blackmail.

What these emails of manufactured aphorisms are telling us to do is to send a copy to everyone you know or you will make everyone believe you are a hard unfeeling bitch - so they should be binned too.

If you want to communicate a good thought about life, do it in your own words, and voluntarily. That will have ten times the value.

I am not saying the sentiments in this chain email are all bad. They are not, but they are like plastic flowers compared to real ones. Would you take a friend a plastic daffodil?

I read this as soon as it was posted and refrained from posting jingle's two fingers down the throat emoticon. Walk away, Bags! I said. Walk away!

It's a chain letter.

The sentiments may be fine, but they are expressed in that chain letter in a completely nauseating way. Yuck.

Movedalot were you being tongue in cheek?

I see a lot of kindness and support on GN but have also observed ( and been the receipient) of some ( at best) thoughtless and (at worst) deliberately unkind posts. I think the OP is far from innocent in all this - a recent post from her accused me of deliberately enjoying hurting people. Bit of dissonance between that and the twaddle in the email

Especially as whatever you write can be accessed in the www.

I agree.

Unfortunately, the trusting disclosure of sadness can, in some cases, be used against you. I would counsel caution in telling too much about yourself on any forum.

Here you are then ((((hugs)))) all round, but only if you want them. and

I think these things can be very soppy, but as for please forward to all your friends it always makes me suspicious there might be a computer virus or such attached. I tend to delete these automatically.

They even used to get passed around at work which was practically a disciplinary offence because of the danger of introducing malware into a large interactive corporate computer system.

As*gracesmum * says there is a lot of kindness and support on GN when someone is in a difficult situation or upset or has disclosed sad histories. Although it is only "virtual" support and hugs it still means a lot to know that someone has listened and is sending you good wishes.

How did I manage to duplicate that? No - don't try to answer.

Almost all the premises on which that email is based would be very hard to prove. How on earth does the original writer know that the strongest people are the most sensitive, for example?

Are these not the sort of aphorisms you get on calendars accompanying cute little kittens/puppies/ chicks/apple blossom? I have nothing agains any of the above, but a little saccharine goes a long way. I think, movedalot that your friends on GN, judging by the many posts and threads I have followed, need little in the way of exhortation to show compassion where it is needed.

I don't like getting these things either, and like you, Jane, I won't forward anything like this on to my friends. Too soppy and sweet for my liking

Almost all the premises on which that email is based would be very hard to prove. How on earth does the original writer know that the strongest people are the most sensitive, for example?

Stansgran - I think you may have missed the point of some posts. I am sure we are all for 'Mom and apple pie' but some of us find it patronising to have it implied that we need telling how to behave by some stranger.

I don't like receiving anything that exhorts me to forward it to all my friends, even news of a bargain at the supernarket. If it is something that I want to forward, and I feel that a friend will want to recive it, I can make my own mind up.

I remember being hugged in the US after Diana died. I think the intention was good so I didn't draw back my skirts and say I'm British remotely and distantly. And I do like the idea of buying the homeless a meal but that is far easier to do in NY or London. Presumably these emails emanate from the US. My email provider tends to protect me.

I am somewhat confused - Stansgran, are you saying that the posts which say that the writers find this thread sugary should be censored? If so, who should do the censoring?

Being serious now.
I believe that most of us are kind, do look out for our friends and family, do care about other people, and I rather resent not only receiving these hectoring emails, but being asked to forward them to all my friends too.

Greatnan I found this definition on the blog of someone called Rae-Lynn:
'I like the idea of an Intention Avalanche and I think we can take it even one step more and make the effort to actually reconnect with people in person. There’s nothing greater than a big hug….except maybe ten big hugs, so go ahead, make an Intention Avalanche that includes hugging a friend sooner rather than later, ask someone to ride with you “socially”, invite someone for a meal, buy a homeless person a meal. If we each reach out to one person, that’s a lot of people we can touch who may need that more than we know'

Watch out anyone who's not that thrilled about being randomly hugged

Yes, I'm a strong advocate of free speech but that should come with some responsibility for the vulnerable members of our society, so if it isn't tempered at source then censorship is needed.

I believe in good manners and I would love to see pornography censored and drugs and weapons unavailable on the Internet so yes I believe in censorship. It is not absurd.

I believe in good manners and I would love to see pornography censored and drugs and weapons unavailable on the Internet so yes I believe in censorship. It is not absurd.

Funny that Nanaej so did I
<adopts Joyce Grenfell tone> Thank you so much for sharing that with us

Does anybody know what an 'intention avalanche' is supposed to mean? And where is the research to show that the strongest are the most sensitive, etc?