[thelist] Hiveware email address encoder

[Norman MacLeod]

I think of e-mail address harvesting as something akin to someone going
through the landfill and writing down all of the addresses found in people's
trash.  I suppose you could say I don't care for the practice very much, and
would never recommend it to my clients.  If you want people's e-mail
addresses, ask them to provide them.  You can do this through a web site,
having them fill out registration cards at your trade show booth, or
whatever...but you should always have the courtesy to ask them to provide it
to you.

Spam filters are far too unreliable at this point to be considered
dependable for mission-critical processes.  We spend time going through our
service provider's Spam Assassin catch-box, sorting out the business related
messages and whitelisting addresses we wish to receive mail from.  Some days
I'd really prefer to opt to get the whole avalanche, simply because it's so
much quicker to use the delete key than it is to sift through a long list of
addresses and message subject lines.

When spam is filtered, the cost to the spammer remains unchanged.  When spam
is filtered, the person on the other end of the line is inconvenienced by
missing messages he or she wanted or needed.  It's a great time-waster to
have to hand-sort spam filter sequestered messages...

	Norman

 


-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Aredridel
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 12:20 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org


> using spam filters is bolting the barn door after the horse has fled
> 
> nice solution, wrong problem
> 
> the real solution is not to condone email harvesting

Disagreed.  Not that I condone harvesting, but I don't actively stop it
much.  Spam filters are the best solution because when spam is filtered, the
cost is even too high for spammers.  Nobody will bother, and we  can party
like it's 1993.

Ari

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