Before Facebook and Russian troll farms, before email forwards, there were...

[JHB]

[Wounded Bear]

1. Back then, they usually weren't so personalized...

like emails are these days.

[tanyev]

2. Yep. I think of chain letters every time I see a guilt-to-share Facebook post.

Starts with a sentimental observation about love, friendship, listening to others, then ends with a “I’ll see who my real friends are by who reads to the end and leaves a comment”. Or shares it. Something manipulative. A troll farm somewhere is tracking how quickly that hits some exponential target.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. FB is a on purpose troll farm factory... main purpose is to troll YOU.

[yardwork]

9. Yes!

[AllaN01Bear]

3. dont forget the constant stream of scam phone calls and letters that want ur $

[leftieNanner]

4. I responded to one of those ONCE

It arrived in my mailbox the day before my dad had Cancer surgery. It spooked me, big time.

Thanks for the Calvin and Hobbes memory. They were the best!

[hunter]

6. Bitcoin...

... obfuscated by some math few understand.

A Ponzi-Pyramid-chain letter.

[Picaro]

7. Calvin and Hobbes

Genius. Absolutely loved Calvin and Hobbes.

My faves over the years: Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Bloom County, and, of course, Peanuts.

[lapfog_1]

8. add Far Side... and you have my old reading list

find the funny pages and read with morning coffee (but you have to be prepared to pause after sipping some coffee before you read the next strip)

[Picaro]

10. How could I forget Far Side?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Great cartoon

[Hekate]

12. I remember those! I was a kid & my mom had to tell me to just throw it away...

Since I had to pay for all my own stamps anyway, in addition to copying the letter 20 times by hand, it was a pretty big ask. I tossed it.

But it enabled me to recognize the genre when they started showing up as emails.

[lpbk2713]

13. I received a chain letter from my sister several years pre-www.

I always thought she was fairly smart. Until then.