[ale] spam

ChangingLINKS.com x3 at ChangingLINKS.com
Sat May 10 01:12:17 EDT 2003


I have been able to curb spam without using "spam protection" like 
spamassassin. With a few simple steps (like using an email form on my web 
site) I have almost eliminated the spam altogether. 

The quickest way to defeat spam is to simply stop it from being profitable 
(without government intervention).

Drew 


On Friday 09 May 2003 11:13 pm, Marvin Dickens wrote:
> All the talk about spam made me look at the email statistics for my
> business (A small technology business) as well as for me personally.
> Now, I've not given spam any real thought for about 4 years (I suppose
> that's because I've used spam protection for so long it has not been an
> issue for me...). FWIW, spam was the 3rd largest category out of 8
> categories that I use to classify my email. Assuming that I am at
> somewhere between middle and high end of typical users of email (At
> least as far as quantities of email per week), this amount of spam is
> ridiculous. This has got to be costing everybody a mint (You, me, them,
> those people over there and etc...)
>
> My email statistics for 5 days beginning Monday and ending tonight at
> 11:41PM:
>
> Categories	Quantity
>
> business   	109
> linux_general   325
> linux_spca   	9
> linux_video   	28
> news   		15
> personal   	24
> spam   		78 <--------<<<
> sql_ledger   	27
>
> I have no idea how 98% of these slugs got my email address(s) other than
> harvesting them from mailing lists or by other dubious means unknown to
> me. It seems to me that if you want to stop spam, white lists, Bayesian
> statistics and such treat only the symptoms and are not an effective
> deterrent against the real problem: The spam itself. Even the new
> earthlink thing is defeatable (At least it seems to me that it is...)
>
> Further, it appears to me that using a technology to make it impossible
> for the email addresses to harvested (Don't ask me how. I don't know...)
> and/or making the monetary cost of sending spam so high as to make the
> act of spamming prohibitive: Something like a spam fine or tax that is
> payable to the IRS (Lying to the IRS about how much spam you sent in a
> year could land you in the Grey Bar Hilton and Resort. This ought to
> have an impact...). Now, I'm not a big fan of bigger government. At the
> same time I'm not a fan of high taxes. With that said, I look at this
> not so much as a tax, but as an incentive *NOT* to be in the spamming
> business. OTOH, something like this could be the first step in an email
> tax which I *TOTALLY* oppose. Regardless, something has got to be done
> to make the act of spamming as a profession go the way of streaking...
>
>
> Best
>
> M. Dickens
>
>
>
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-- 
Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
Drew Brown
http://www.ChangingLINKS.com
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