>It may not be a chain letter, but to some extent it's not much better if people do start spreading it.
I think it is. Any letter that says "forward to all your friends" - or to the top 20, etc., is a chain letter by definition, whether the message be a fake virus warning, or a legitimate request. The point is that (as you mentioned already) the chain letter (or whatever the heck you call it!) starts spreading all over the known universe, and nobody can stop it. So, although I don't question the good intentions of the originator of this thread, I believe that his letter is, in effect, a chain letter.
Hilmar.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
