Re: Spam costs and questions

[dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)]

Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com> writes:

> At 12:45 PM -0700 6/4/97, Declan McCullagh asked:
> >	What are the costs to consumers of
> >	unsolicited e-mail?  I guess the time it
> >	takes to delete it might be one, hard
> >	drive space might be another.  I would
> >	like to know how to quantify it, and
> >	compare it with the cost of sending
> >	e-mail.
>
> I don't think the costs of the 1-3 spam messages I get each day is
> significant.  (But I don't post to Usenet.)

I post moderately heavily to Usenet (10-10 articles / week).

All the UCE I get is much less in volume that, e.g., the traffic from
the Cypherpunks mailing list. In some weeks it's only 1 or 2 pieces.

I may be getting so little UCE because I've asked Wallace to remove
me from his mailing list, so I only get it from "rogue rogues".

It takes me no material time to browse the subject lines and to skip
the UCE. (Sometimes I do read the UCE - some of the products they've
advertised sounded interesting to me). Nor am I paying to receive
anything. (Given that I get mailbombed pretty regularly, I wouldn't
go for anything other than flat rate.)

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<a href="mailto:dlv@bwalk.dm.com">Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM</a>
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps