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Snopes has apparently turned into an opinion site
posted at 2:16 PM  
I guess they've run out of actual facts, so they come up with their own opinions about rumors instead. Today we have the cash back scam, with no proof whatsoever on whether or not it actually happens.
I've been seeing a lot of these "Status: Undetermined" stories lately. It makes me wonder what the point is in writing them. Are they hoping someone with more information will write in, or are they just really hurting for material? Are they too busy to investigate matters? What's the deal?
Snopes also did a lot of fact-checking about the political candidates during the election, something that seemed beyond the scope of a debunking site.
What it boils down to is, I'm not sure what kind of site Snopes is anymore.
Comments
They post about ANYTHING that is "circulating" on the internet...
And of course they can't debunk EVERYTHING so quickly.
Some things can never be proven one way or the other, I'm sure.
Read the whole article:
"The scenario expressed above is something that could simply have been a mistake, the result of a cash register malfunction or inattentiveness on the part of the cashier and/or the customer, rather than a deliberate theft. Lacking more detail about this incident and other examples of cashiers' consistent failure to return cash back to customers, we wouldn't be so quick to claim this as evidence of a widespread rip-off scheme."
Use some logic... just because they call it "undetermined" does not mean they're saying it's true. Duh.
And it sounds like you're drawing a lot of conclusions about politics. Facts are facts, and legends are legends, and hoaxes are hoaxes... Regardless of whether the topic is politics or computer viruses.
Frankly, I think Snopes is less biased than most of the major media outlets. hah!
That all said, cashiers HAVE been known to rip off customers of their change. I don't think it's a "wide spread" con, but it happens. Admitting there's a possibility the short was deliberate in the anecdote mentioned isn't so off the mark.
Hi there, Chloe. Welcome to the Blog o' Me.
I did read the whole article. I also never said that "Undetermined" meant "True".
My point was that rather than debunking things, Snopes is simply putting up a lot of rumors that they haven't yet proven true or false, and then giving their unfounded opinion on what the answer might be. I didn't think that was the purpose of the site.
You do have a point about hoaxes being hoaxes, etc., regardless of the nature of the item in question. However, Snopes seemed to be realigning itself as a news resource by focusing so much on the U.S. presidential candidates.
If this is the direction the site is going now, that's all well and good. All I was saying was that I started reading Snopes expecting to find articles about whether urban legends were "fact" or "fiction". Making that determination doesn't seem to be the primary function of the site anymore.
Thanks for your comment.
I can tell you for fact, as a former cashier of Stop and Shop, that this does happen. It's also quite easy to do as the cashier completely controls the cashback process and can easily enter an amount without the customer's knowledge.
As such, I consider this rumor "True". It IS something people should be aware of and watch out for. I tried to write to the people at Snopes, but I got no response and the entry wasn't edited, leading me to believe that they just don't care how accurate they are. They can't deny it happens, so they're only justification for the "Undetermined" status is the magnitude.
As they wrote, they're not sure that it is "widespread". What does it take for it to become widespread? Does it have to happen to them? While giving people the benefit of the doubt is nice and all, their classification of "Undetermined" borders on sticking one's head in the sand.
- Derik http://godlikenerd.com
Thanks for the info, Derik! Scary stuff...
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