Re: Cypherpunks afraid of spam?

["Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>]

On Fri, 14 Feb 1997 aaron@herringn.com wrote:

> [Fairly prominent Cypherpunk I'll decline to name- I don't mean to ridicule
> him personally, just his (distressingly common) attitude]

Hey, I can take the heat.  But I'm afraid you missed my perhaps too-terse
point.

> >Just for the record.  I will not post to USENET given the spamming that
> >seems to go to IDs that appear there.
> 
> [chuckle]
> 
> Just add an anti-spam segment to your email address.
> 
> example:
> 
> jsmith[at]foo.com
> 

It's not that simple.  Consider:

1) I stopped learning more about new computer tools than the minimum
needed to do my work a long time ago, when I stopped programming and
started lawyering.  It wasn't an efficient use of my time.

2) Our system here has ONE email system: PINE.  It defaults my "from"
address.  There is no obvious way to override it.  I may have the
necessary tools and permissions, I may not; I don't feel like taking
whatever time it takes to figure it out.  We use PINE for usenet and
email, using the same config file.  There are other usenet tools here,
like tin, but I would have to learn them.  Again, I have no idea if I have
the permissions/tools/knowledge to alter my headers.  I am certain that I
could hack it with time enough and motivation enough.  I have neither.

3) I do other things besides talk to you with this tool.  I communicate
with students, family and others.  I want them to get my real headers.  I
don't want an elaborate switching mechanims every time I change the person
I'm speaking to.

> Most people worth talking to have enough of a clue to replace [at] with @.
> 
> if your software requires an apparently valid email address, try
> 
> jsmith@NOSPAM.foo.com
> 
> I put a spam-busted address in my .sig and give root@127.0.0.1 as my email
> in the from: header. Sure, somebody out there is going to be unhappy with
> me, but if they have a clue they'll figure it out. Meantime, the SpamBots
> are bouncing mail to the admin of the site instead of to me.
> 
> That may not be enough if you're already in the spamming lists. Try
> using 'positive' filtering- instead of filtering to eliminate unwanted
> mail, filter email from regular correspondents into a 'approved'
> directory, and leave the rest in the inbox to pick through later.
> 
> It seems very strange that the denziens of this list, reputed to be gutsy
> enough to take on the FBI, NSA, CIA, and White House, would be scared
> away from a discussion forum (Usenet) by uninvited email.
> 
> We'd better hope they never figure out Cypherpunks, Guardians of
> Privacy and Defenders of Free Speech, are afraid of spam.
> 
> (And supposedly the 'Moderation experiment' is over, so this won't get
> kicked onto the -flames list, although it's more ridicule than flame...)
> 
> 
> 
> 

==
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A. Michael Froomkin        | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law |
U. Miami School of Law     | froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087            | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm here.