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Re: OT: offending sig + headers



On Thu, May 17, 2007 at 03:49:03PM -0600, Kyle Wheeler wrote:
> Now, I don't have a particularly strong opinion on either of these 
> methods (though I acknowledge both their strengths and weaknesses)... 
> but isn't this the pot calling the kettle black here?

Obviously I don't think so.  I think there's a HUGE difference.

And the comment in my sig is anything but glib.  A great deal of
thought and effort went into all parts of my spam management scheme,
including weighing any potential irritation of people who might want
to send me mail against the benefits of the scheme.  And I mean it
most sincerely.  I *am* sorry for the inconvenience; but not sorry
enough to undo it.  Ultimately, the spammers *are* to blame; I would
never have gone to such lengths if I did not need to protect myself
and my time from them.

> I mean, you have two potential sources of irritation for "people who 
> legitimately want to send you mail" (however you wish to define 
> "legitimately"):
> 
>     1. A challenge message demanding proof that you're not a spammer

If I use this method, you get the annoying challenge, even if I know
you and I've given you my e-mail address, unless I remembered and/or
had the opportunity to whitelist you ahead of time.

> 
>     2. A refusal to give you a valid email address, and a glib retort
>        to thank the spammers

If I wanted mail from you, you'd already have my e-mail address. ;-)
In that case, you don't get any annoying challenge bounce message.

> And one of these is supposed to be less irritating than the other? 

The difference is that one is potentially irritating to people *I care
about receiving mail from*, and the other absolutely is not.  I'll let
you guess which is which...  ;-)

> It suddenly occurs to me; if two people who both use Derek's anti-spam 
> measure are subscribed to a public mailing list, and one wishes to 
> contact the other, how can they do it? 

Yeah, it's really not a difficult problem to solve.  It's already been
pointed out that my address isn't that hard to find, if you really
want to.  At least one person monitoring this thread has already done
so (Hi David!).  I've also already stated that I maintain a public address
that gets heavily filtered.  If I expected mail from you, it wouldn't
get lost.  A variety of other solutions also exist: web page with the
address as an image, IM, irc private message, etc.  A small amount of
thought produces a large number of solutions...

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
-=-=-=-=-
This message is posted from an invalid address.  Replying to it will result in
undeliverable mail.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Thank the spammers.

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