[thelist] Serious antispam measures
Kelly Hallman
khallman at ultrafancy.com
Mon Apr 19 07:01:27 CDT 2004
Apr 19 at 1:55pm, Kasimir K wrote:
> ...if you require something in the message, and inform the senders about
> this requirement automatically (e.g with auto reply), then then people
> you don't know will be able to contact you.
As I said, I think this is an ill-conceived strategy. It's unfortunate
that spam causes people to resort to these solutions, but putting the
burden on legitimate emailers is an ugly solution.
> ...so they drop me a line. If I use a white list, and reject mails not
> found on it, I've just lost business. But if I instead auto reply them
> with instruction "please include phrase 'I want a web site by kasimir-k'
> in your message" (just an example phrase), they will be able to email
> me. The requirement is easy enough...
I'm afraid such an auto-reply message is likely going to cause you to lose
business anyway. Whatever my purpose for contacting you might be, sending
me an email reply like that is a sure way to keep me from pursuing it.
The other problem with any type of auto-reply instructions is that it
generates even more email, much of it going into the ether--responding to
every email address that sends you spam. The cost of spam is largely due
to an excess of email traffic; doubling it isn't a great solution.
--
Kelly Hallman
// Ultrafancy
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