Editing Chain letter (section)

===== Variations and Transformations in Print =====
Besides the standard Fukou no Tegami, variations emerged:
*   '''Guinness Challenge Letters:''' In the 1990s, some chain letters disguised themselves as attempts to set a [[Guinness World Records|Guinness World Record]] for the longest chain, sometimes falsely claiming support from [[The Scout Association|Scout]] groups.<ref name="読売新聞19921212m_p23"/><ref name="朝日新聞19891022m_p4"/><ref name="道新19890522m_p25"/> These often still contained veiled threats of misfortune for non-participation.<ref name="幸福のEメール_p25"/><ref name="幸福のEメール_p26"/> Guinness World Records publicly denied any involvement.<ref name="読売新聞19921212m_p23"/>
*   '''Eveletter (エブレター, ''Eburetā''):''' A variation promising romantic success or good fortune if forwarded, and misfortune or social loss if not.<ref name="歴史読本31(3)_p178"/><ref name="静岡県民俗学会誌19_p113"/>
*   {{External media|
|image1=[https://archive.today/LeNZG/1ea11c9328407bdd89192eb9d217ce8dec911ff5.JPG Example of a "Stick Letter"] - [[Hiroshi Yamamoto (writer)|Hiroshi Yamamoto's SF Secret Base]]
}}'''Stick Letter (棒の手紙, ''Bō no Tegami''):''' [[File:Metamorphose from a letter of misfortune to a letter of sticks.svg|thumb|Diagram showing the visual similarity leading to the misreading of "不幸" (fukō - unlucky) as "棒" (bō - stick) in handwritten Japanese]] A prominent mutation originating in the 1990s where the handwritten characters for "unlucky" (不幸, ''fukō'') were misread or sloppily copied as the character for "stick" (棒, ''bō''). Due to the instruction "do not change the text", this error was faithfully propagated, eventually becoming more common than the original "unlucky" version.<ref name="山本弘のSF秘密基地"/> These often contained specific, though fictional, details about victims (e.g., "Ms./Mr. XX of XX University was killed by Ms./Mr. XX for stopping it") and escalating requirements or warnings.<ref name="ムー20(11)_p80"/><ref name="ニッカン19971121_p28"/><ref name="朝日新聞19980516e_p15"/><ref name="朝日新聞19980719m_p25"/><ref name="高知新聞19980724m_p22"/> Poor handwriting led to further errors, like "handwritten or copy" (手書き、コピー可) becoming "予書、ヒピーも可" (gibberish).<ref name="モノと図像から探る怪異妖怪の東西_p108"/><ref name="読売新聞19971112m_p23"/> By 1997, photocopied and word-processed versions were common, introducing new errors like typos (e.g., "I am" 私は becoming 渡しは).<ref name="ニッカン19971121_p28"/> Writer [[Hiroshi Yamamoto (writer)|Hiroshi Yamamoto]] analyzed these, noting internal contradictions (e.g., adding victim details violated the "do not change text" rule) and later fictionalized the phenomenon.<ref name="山本弘のSF秘密基地"/><ref name="妖魔夜行しかばね綺譚_p47"/> Scholar Maruyama Yasuaki links the "stick" error to the increasing prevalence of horizontal writing with the rise of personal computers, making the visual confusion between the characters more likely.<ref name="モノと図像から探る怪異妖怪の東西_p108"/> The "Stick Letter" faded around 1998, likely due to accumulating errors rendering it nonsensical.<ref name="BuzzFeed20161011"/>