This is unlike Asha Shah who has "warned friends against sending forwards". Despite this, she still gets them from weird email addresses: "Most of them turn out to be 'non-veg' jokes and pictures! Even if I block those IDs, the mails keep coming through different ones."

An agitated 'forward-abominator' has put this message online:

'How gullible can people get? I once receive a message saying 'If you send this to all of your friends, Bill Gates would pay you 1000 dollars.'

I replied saying: 'How the heck can Bill Gates send you money if he doesn't even know your address!' Of course there was no reply. But I'm sure there were hundreds who forwarded it due to boredom or ignorance. And those 'If you don't forward this to your friends, you will have bad luck, this is so true' variety are even more annoying!

Yet there are many who make a strong case for forwards. Deepa Kundal, customer service executive, goes through every one and sends the best to friends. She says: "When you're very busy, but still want to let friends know that you thought about them, you send forwards. When you have nothing to say, but still want to maintain contact, you send forwards. So also, when you have something to say, but don't know what and how!"

Pravin, a mechanical engineer who hosts one of the biggest mailing groups called theworldofpravsj.net, echoes the same feelings: "You want to share things with friends, that's why. You can't always write personal mails, while forwards are free and good to share."

Pravin says they even help in an uncanny way: "One of our subscribers forwarded a mail to his 'warring' love. They got along, and are planning to marry now!" Many such experiences can be found in the XPerience Pravs J section. Even corporate houses use meaningful forwards to inspire their employees, according to Pravin: "Pravs World retains over 99.5% of our corporate subscribers."

Then there's Rohit Maskara, chartered accountant, who doesn't like forwards but still has to go through them. The reason? His girlfriend loves them and it's his task to cut-paste the catchy ones onto a floppy for her. Same is the case with Madhu Somaan, software engineer, who prints out forwarded jokes for his wife.

Software engineer Ivan Martin is sometimes a victim of his own jokes! He loves forwarding stuff to his friends. Tragedy strikes when they forward the same jokes back to him! "This happens because I'm in their address book and they just overlook the task of deleting my ID before clicking the 'send' button."

Like him, Vishal Kapoor knows the importance of not sending mass forwards: He lost a good Net friend only because he forgot to remove her ID before sending a non-veg forward to many friends. "She blasted me with an angry mail and blocked my ID. All attempts for an appeasement have failed."

Also, what happens when you log on in all the eagerness to read mail from a special someone, only to see your mailbox overflowing with forwards and no sign of that particular mail you were looking for? "This happens so often as I surf only once a week," laments housewife Freeza D'Souza, "And making a new email ID to avoid forwards only confuses my contacts."

So are forwards a menace or good fun? Vinay Karad, graphics designer, sums it up: "It depends on your taste, your time and the kind of mails you get. Those who have enough time can scan their mails and devote more attention only to those they like. Otherwise, it's very difficult to tolerate forwards."

Here are some tips on tackling forwards effectively:

• Create a separate e-mail account for them, so that they don't camouflage your personal mails.
  
  
• When people sending you forwards that are not to your taste, let them know it. If they continue to send such mails, consider blocking their IDs.
  
  
• To minimise the amount you receive, avoid subscribing to mailing groups and discourage friends from sending forwards.