Junk mail

[John Larocque]

At 12:31 PM 29/10/95, Michael Moynihan wrote:
>At 11:17 AM 29:10:95 +1100, you [Bernard Robertson-Dunn] wrote:
>>How about we think this junk mail thing through.
>>
[...]
>It's matter of judgement

[...]

Yes, I agree.  Surely, the first response to unsolicited mail that is of no
value to you is to ignore it completely. If you find yourself vexed by a
particular sender of junk mail then the next level of response could be a
polite but firm reply to that effect.

I admit that in another posting I suggested, to see what kind of response
it would stimulate, an auto-retaliation system.  I personally do not
advocate building retaliation machines.

But I do agree with Bernard and Micheal that we have to try to think our
way through this.  We should, in that regard, discuss the preventive and
risk minimisation issues and strategies that may be relevant here.

So:

The target list used by the junk mailer has to have been assembled somehow.
Either by the junk mailer or by another party who probably sold it to the
junk mailer.

So where did the compiler of the target list get the Email addresses?  By
sending 'who' or equivalent commands to listservers that don't require that
the sender of a server-request message be a member of one of its lists?

Should listowners ensure that listservers will only 'who' requests made by
list members?

That would easily be circumvented.  The target list compiler would only
need to subscribe to the lists.  Target list compilation based on something
like NEW-LIST as a primary source can even be automated.

So, should listowners only add 'trusted' email addesses to lists?

To be deemed 'trusted', you would have to be sponsored or endorsed by
somebody who was already on the list.  This way, the listowner and everyone
else would know that the primary motivation for joining the list was the
purpose of the list.  The downside with this of course is, from a social
point of view, that we lose our free range access to lists through things
like NEW-LIST and just accidentally hearing about lists.

But lets face it - there are pressures on the net to coral all us free
range chooks and put us in battery boxes.  A really valuable mailing list
may, as a result of junk mail, come to be defined as one that will protect
the privacy of your Email address.

I gave up on News a year ago because of the noise.  If junk mail happens in
a big way I would probably unsubscribe from all mailing lists, change my
Email address and subscribe only to moderated and 'trusted' member mailing
lists.


jl




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John Larocque                     voice/fax: +61 6 290 2526
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