Re: Spam strategy

On Wed, 11 May 2005, Bob Maxey wrote:
> I am not a list cop and I do not control anything. Just a comment from yet
> another person that will not care to read your messages if we are forced
> into jumping through hoops. It is not the way to prevent spam. Simply deal
> with spam using the "del" key and please do not force us to visit the web to
> gain approval.

Absolutely, I agree 200%. What's especially irritating (to me) is getting
a complicated e-mail of inquiry about Post-Factory, spending 20 minutes of
my remaining time on earth crafting a custom reply, then having the thing
bounce back with an "invitation" to go to a longlonglong URL to ask
*permission* to address the delicate soul who has inquired -- as happened
again this week.

I figure if someone sends an inquiry without thinking to "register" the
relevant address, they may not, after all, be Ideal Reader. Plus, for me
at least, going to said URL is not just a matter of click click ... I do
normal e-mail on a terminal emulator & log on in seconds. But an
"internet" URL (also attachments, and photographs!!!) requires a Remote
Access connection via dial up -- a relatively extreme production, which I
avoid so far as possible.

Subsequent list comments on Maxey's statement above imply that it's
"either/or," that is, get buried in Spam or put up this kind of filter.
It is not. There are VERY effective Spam filters, for instance Spam
Assassin on the Post-Factory server, and another, name forgotten, on the
Panix server. Both of these are supplied by the ISP with no cost or
trouble to me. Both are available as a folder that you can sort through at
your leisure, that is, run down the directory in case there's a name you
recognize, or forgot to register. I have one of each -- and in the
Post-Factory server, which I check every 3 or 4 days (usually finding 100
or so spams) I have NEVER YET, in over a year, found one that was NOT
spam.

Why aol can't manage something similar is another mystery of the spheres.

True, the stray spam does slip through into my regular mail, but so what?
I used to get 25 to 50 a day. Today when I logged on to Panix (after 3
days offline) there were 7 spams in my mail queue. I, for one, can deal
with that.

Judy
Received on Thu May 12 12:33:11 2005