You've heard a rumour, so you go to rumourtrace.com and check if it's there. If not, you create a new entry, and enter the email address (not revealed on website) of the person from whom you heard the rumour. They get an email, directing them to the website where they can update the rumour with the email address of the person from whom they heard it.
This process continues until someone fails either to update the website with a new email (there's a chance they started the rumour), or they reject the notion that they spread that rumour (there's a chance the person prior to them in the chain started the rumour).
I guess you could have about 2 or 3 days to respond to the site before your name is revealed. Maybe the whole chain of involved people could be revealed, there's a lot of possibilities.
In the meantime, the rumour is shown on the site, along with a count of the length of the chain. People responding to the email notifications get a chance to comment on the rumour too, as does the general site-visiting public.
I'm sure there are some nice twists the 1/2B crowd can add to this one.
Come to think of it, I'm sure there's some nice twists the lawyer crowd can add.-- bibimbap, Aug 19 2002 Popbitch http://www.popbitch.com/Your #1 source for UK-centric celebrity gossip. Caution: the messageboard is populated by bitter, cruel people with a penchant for colourful language. [calum, Aug 19 2002] "This is rumour control ..... here are the facts...."
Like it. Croissant.-- 8th of 7, Aug 19 2002 I now see 8th as Brian Glover. This is (probably) not good.
Nice idea, bibimbap.-- st3f, Aug 19 2002 Houston, we have a rumour...-- PaulP, Aug 19 2002 Can you check and see why I never got my check from Microsoft for forwarding that e-mail around?...-- Mr Burns, Aug 19 2002 It's a great extortion scheme for email addresses (give me one or we'll publish yours), especially those of gullible people.-- jutta, Aug 19 2002 Gullible people also are fond of the "Send this page (as well as thousands of spam messages) to a friend" button..-- Mr Burns, Aug 19 2002 What if you heard it from me but I don't have an e-mail address?-- phoenix, Aug 19 2002 Phoenix: Stay where you are. There's no point in running. The Black Helicopters will be at your location very shortly .....-- 8th of 7, Aug 19 2002 Of course, as the chain grows, the rumor will resemble that "originally" posted less and less, until it becomes one of those digital cell phone ads.
" 'Mike's boffed ducks' ? I have no idea what you're talking about. I never speak my mind on any topic but large, evil software companies."-- beauxeault, Aug 19 2002 This would be very cool, especially if there were enough decent rumours about famous people (link). However, such a model would require heavy moderation in order to remove playground and office rumours - recording these would be a waste of the global magic of the internet.
Lawyer mode: if the rumour is true, the person who told it initially would be in no danger. If the initiatior of a false rumour was found (and I have doubts about whether this would happen) then it would allow the defamed party some recompense. Consequently, rumours of the "Ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell only shits twice a week and what comes out is small, hard & black"- type may be discouraged. The major downside is that the last named gossiping internet fishwife may get clobbered with lawsuits (or at least threatening lawyer-letters), even if they didn't start the rumour.
Croissant, for all the wrong reasons.-- calum, Aug 19 2002 //Tanilda is blind.. donkey of her own...//
if you forward to twenty people today, you can help by making yourself an ass. All that remains then is to mail yourself to Tanilda's third world country to enrol for the only menial work a refuse-brained idiot like you is capable of.
If you don't forward, you'll be infected with e-HIV, which will be unknowingly passed on to everyone in your address list via the magic of outlook.-- yamahito, Aug 19 2002 They actually do this at my school. If someone starts a rumor about someone else, and they trace it back to the source, the source gets sent to AEP(Alternative Education Program). I remember that happened to someone and the assistant principal (you can't spell assistant without "ass"!) gave us a big long speech about how rumors are bad and evil and if you hear a rumor about someone else you should immediatley go to a teacher and spill everything you know.-- BinaryCookies, Aug 19 2002 I think this idea would generate more rumo(u)rs than it would solve.-- RayfordSteele, Aug 19 2002 I heard from my neighbor that they ran into Elvis sunbathing on a beach in Haiti just last month....-- Susen, Aug 20 2002 Elvis once entered an Elvis-look-alike competition and came third (so I am reliably informed).-- angel, Aug 20 2002 The number of rumors that have been popping up in my in-box of late, I think we need one of these just for the HB. Grief, it's worse than Peyton Place.-- DrCurry, Aug 21 2002 random, halfbakery