[Hidden-tech] An Idea about Email

[Shel Horowitz]

At 7:24 AM -0400 8/26/08, Brian Johnson wrote:
>    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
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>
>ussailis at shaysnet.com wrote:
>>  Here's an idea.
>>
>>  Since I have become the owner of Shaysnet, I have had a chance to look at a
>>  lot of spam. What I have observed is many of my users get the same stuff.
>>  So, couldn't there be a program that says "if X users (let X be some
>>  reasonable number like 4) get the same mail, it is spam, therefore deal
>>  with it"
>>  
>
>This will break mailing lists (like this one) because they send the
>exact same message to many people, and it wont do much against spam.
>Most spam will have some parts that are randomized each time to thwart
>this type of prevention.


I agree with Brian. I have a number of people who have requested that 
I send them humor or political alerts, way more than four--plus I 
have thousands of subscribers on my various double-opt-in 
newsletters, though those are handled by a service. Even if you 
whitelisted the big newsletter services, people like me who are not 
spamming but who send a lot of mail will not be happy. Spam is a 
scourge, but so many of the cures are worse than the disease. It's 
really a challenge. I've shown up on a blacklist for friends and 
family, just because their providers didn't like my webhost. Imagine 
trying to email your own mother and being told it was blocked for 
spam. Yet somehow all the bodypart and pharma junk gets through.

And I find certain of the largest cable providers apparently filter 
on some terms related to progressive politics. There's got to be a 
way to control spam without censoring the real stuff, but it doesn't 
seem to have been developed yet.
-- 

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