Re: Spamming (Good or Bad?)

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 12:55 PM 8/21/96, Asgaard wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>> There are technological fixes which I would favor over attempts to ban
>> unwanted messages.
>
>In the meantime, before these technological fixes are easily implemented,
>what is the proper way to handle unwanted commercial mail?
>
>1) delete immediately
>
>2) reply with 'Fuck off, morons!'
>
>3) as in 2) plus an attachment of some 1Mb file
>
>4) as in 3) plus a CC to the postmaster of the sending site

Well, this actually just happened to me. I got a long message from the
"Computer Currents" folks, for Yet Another Net Newsletter, "Inside
Currents," saying they had added my name to their list and that if I wished
to be removed I should a) paste a certain reply form into a section at the
end of the message, b) readdress the reply to a person handling
unsubscribes, c) blah blah blah.

Instead, I just hit "Reply" and sent the message back to them.

I wasn't sure if the message would go out to the original list or not, nor
did I care. I didn't ask to be subscribed to their list, I wasn't
interested in learning their indiosyncratic procedure for removing one's
name, and they should have set up their distribution list so as not to
allow recipients to post to the entire list (it is, after all, not a
mailing list intended for postings by recipients).

Well, my message and dozens of similar reply messages from others went out
to the "Inside Currents" list, provoking an avalanche of even more replies,
bounces, etc.

"Computer Currents" is now feeling intense heat over this episode.

(My latest message, sent two days ago, was entitled "Fuck "Computer
Currents,"" and included my "How to Make a Pipe Bomb" sig. It hasn't come
back to me, so maybe CC figured out how to turn off their spammish
features.)

(Hey, "spammish" is a nice word. Hackers can say, "Yeah, I took Spammish in
high school.")

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."