Snopes.com

Snopes.com (), officially 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.Neil Henry, American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media (University of California Press 2007), p. 285. The heading carries the subtitle, Rumor Has It.

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.

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 ("[T]he 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 Snopes site in 1995. Barbara and David now work on the site full time. A television pilot based on the site called Snopes: Urban Legends was completed with American actor Jim Davidson as host, but major networks passed on the project.

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. 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."Urban Legends Reference Pages: Who Is Barack Obama?". Retrieved 22 January 2008. As of March 2009, the site has around 6.2 million visitors per month.Reader's Digest: "Rumor Detectives: True Story or Online Hoax?". Retrieved 10 March 2009.

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."Urban Legends Reference Pages: (Frequently Asked Questions)". (Re "How do I know the information you've presented is accurate?".) Retrieved June 9, 2006. 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. The Mikkelsons say many of the urban legends are mistakenly attributed because of common problems associated with e-mail signatures. Six tips from Snopes.com on e-mails. Congress.org, Nov. 30, 2009.

In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on authority, the Mikkelsons assembled a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that they term The Repository of Lost Legends."Urban Legends Reference Page: Lost Legends". Retrieved 9 June 2006. (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.)

One fictional legend averred that the children's nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" was really a coded reference used by pirates to recruit members. This parodied a real false legend surrounding the supposed connection of "Ring Around the Rosie" to the bubonic plague. Although the creators were sure that no one could believe a tale so ridiculous — and had added a link"Urban Legends Reference Page: Lost Legends (False Authority)". Retrieved 9 June 2006. at the bottom of the page to another page explaining the hoax, and a message with the ratings reading "Note: Any relationship between these ratings and reality is purely coincidental" — eventually the legend was featured as true in an urban legends board game and television show."Urban Legends Reference Pages: Humor (Mostly True Stories)". Retrieved 20 June 2006. The television show, Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed, was shown to have been using information from Snopes when one of Snopes' invented "lost legends" appeared on the program as true.

Snopes has received praise from folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, who considers the site so comprehensive as to obviate the necessity for launching one of his own.

In 2007, the Snopes site featured pop-up ads for the controversial Zango adware product."Not an urban legend: Snopes pushes Zango" - Sunbelt Blog, January 28, 2008"Snopes peddling malware?" - TechSpot, January 28, 2008 Snopes stopped serving the ads in January 2008, after criticism from tech sites, security experts and users.

Snopes receives more complaints that it is too liberal than that it is too conservative, but insists that it applies the same debunking standards to all political stories. FactCheck reviewed a sample of Snopes' responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases. FactCheck noted that Barbara Mikkelson was a Canadian citizen (and thus unable to vote in American elections) and David Mikkelson was an independent who was once a registered Republican. "You’d be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people," David Mikkelson told them.

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