[PLUG] in the mean time

[Steve Bonds]

On 9 Jun 2002, Russell Senior seniorr at aracnet.com XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

> Munging introduces entropy into the data which makes future data
> archeology (such as to create a future archive) more difficult.  As
> someone who does data archeology for a living, it is something that I
> find immensely annoying.
> 
> me> b) it interferes unacceptably with the ability to mail people
> me> privately.
> 
> Russ> I don't see how. The senders address IS in the mail that you
> Russ> receive from the list. It's just not available from the web
> Russ> page, which I personally consider to be a good thing.
> 
> Suppose you are researching something posted a year ago.  If you want
> to ask the person privately what they meant or how things turned out
> or whatever, you can't, because you don't readily have a way to do
> that.  You'd have to post to the mailing list (which they might not
> still even be subscribed to) to try to reach them, which is wasteful.
> 
> Basically, it imposes an unnecessary cost of complexity and
> obstruction for an illusory benefit.

I can only imagine how horribly things like my sneakemail address mess up
data archeology.  Unfortunately, the free ranging spammers have forced me
to take such measures to protect my "real" E-mail address.

I've been at this same address for many years.  Given how much spam I get
just from people accidently or ignorantly posting my private E-mail in
messages or forwarded E-mails to Usenet, I shudder to think how bad it
would be if I didn't guard it so closely.

Fortunately for the archeologists, I've been signing my messages the same
way for years.  ;->

  -- Steve Bonds