[NCLUG] mmmmmmm...spam control

[Mike Loseke]

Thus spake bmc:
> 
> Of course to do what you would like to do (and I am assuming allot) and take
> away Spam , even though we all hate it, would in fact "give up an essential
> liberty" , Free speech. right?
> 
> Once a governing body decides that Spam is in fact not ok what's to stop
> them from deciding that other things are not ok. It's much like those
> "temporary" tax hikes you see. They never really seem to go away. The simply
> find another way to keep it or just increase it permanently.

 I never said I was out to stop spam, using either an activist model or a
governmental one - I was just making the point that by forcing extra work
on those who wish to privately talk to you ("you" the person, not the
marketing demographic), shouldn't have to be bothered with saying "yes, I
really am honest in my desire to speak communicate with you" by responding
to an autoresponder to become a member of your private whitelist.  There's
a word for that but I don't know what it is. If such a mechanism becomes
widespread, it won't be long before the spammers start responding to those
anyway and then what system would people use?

 In fact, who here would be surprised if this sort of mechanism wasn't
being put forth by a spammer in the first place? At the same time, keep
your hand up if you think they are incapable of stripping "NOSPAM", and
similar foobar, out of addresses used to post to usenet?

 Spam is just a fact of life that we all have to deal with. Constructing
active mechanisms to make it so that I have to hit the "d" key in elm 5 to
10 times less per day by making other people reply to an email so their
first email can get through is, IMO, wrong and give the sender a bad taste
for future communications with you.

 If there's a "right" way to stop spam I certainly don't know what it is.
It certainly isn't the RBL and friends - I get 10 to 15 spam per day on an
ISP account where that ISP uses several of these services.

 As to the Ben Franklin quote, it just popped into my head as being
relevant - maybe not 100%, but it's up there. More relevant to the
now-paranoid world we live in, certainly.



> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Loseke" <mike at verinet.com>
> To: <nclug at nclug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 12:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [NCLUG] mmmmmmm...spam control
> 
> 
> > Thus spake Evelyn Mitchell:
> > >
> > > * On 2002-02-19 18:46 bmc <brettcrandall at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > One tool for Linux, known as Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA),
> takes
> > > > the opposite tactic and uses a "whitelist" approach. Instead of
> allowing
> > >
> > > I've resisted moving to a whitelist approach because I get a lot of
> > > new contact emails for business. I haven't noticed any other businesses
> > > I contact using this approach, and I suspect that it would be offputting
> > > to new clients.
> > >
> > > What do you all think? Would you consider it rude or inconvenient to
> > > have to reply to a whitelist message? Several major linux names use
> > > them now, and I don't mind if its going to a "I get way too much mail
> > > because I'm well known" person.
> >
> >  My main problem with this is that it says that spam is ok and that I'll
> > just go through the extra effort to only accept email from people I like
> > or know will send me email. It doesn't do anything to stop spammers from
> > spamming and does everything to torque off the people you forgot to add.
> > I haven't subscribed to the Qwest telemarketer blocking service for this
> > same reason (I just don't answer "out of area" calls).
> >
> >  A relevant quote (gee, a quote from me?) from good ol' Ben Franklin, and
> > who can argue with Ben, is:
> >
> >           They that can give up essential liberty to
> >           obtain a little temporary saftey deserve
> >           neither liberty not saftey.
> >                           -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
> >
> > --
> >    Mike Loseke    | One is never deceived, one deceives oneself.
> >  mike at verinet.com |     -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
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-- 
   Mike Loseke    | One is never deceived, one deceives oneself.
 mike at verinet.com |     -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832