[PLUG] Reporting SPAM (was Using spamassassin's tagging...)

Jeme A Brelin jeme at brelin.net
Fri Oct 17 11:52:02 UTC 2003


On Fri, 17 Oct 2003, B. Thoen wrote:
> Pretty soon, people with small personal servers (like me) are going to
> be getting so much spam that it will look the same as a permanent DDoS
> attack.

That's absurd.  With that level of inundation, no person would EVER
read email and the entire spam system would die under its own weight.
A balance will be reached.  We're over that balancing point now and it's
just taking time for the system to find equilibrium.

> I think we need to get rid of anonymous e-mail for starters.

Your first thought is to remove privacy and security from others to solve
your problem?

> It's the same thing as abandoning Usenet for private, spam-excluded
> mailing lists.

I've been using USENET ALOT lately and I have seen very little spam.

And have you ever considered the social repercussions of abandoning USENET
for private mailing lists?  For one, it is more exclusive and less likely
to include unsolicited opinion and points of view.  This is a great
detriment to intellectual discussion.  Points of view are limited to those
who know where the list is and have subscribed explicitly.  USENET allows
for free browsing of groups in a loose topical hierarchy so that all
discussions are easily found in one place and a person can pop in and out
of discussions on their own time.

For open discussions, USENET is far superior to email lists.

> Then people can choose to use a secure mail system or stick with the
> chaotic anarchy of the current system.

I'll take the anarchy, thanks.  Authorities will never bring the same
level of freedom, flexibility, and harmony that anarchy can.

> In the old days, the anarchy was great, but then you had to learn the
> lore to join the tribe. Now any idiot can get into the game, and there's
> too many.

Yeah, Bill, you're right.  It's all about you being better than everyone
else.  The ignorant, unwashed masses just aren't good enough to play in
your internet.

Forgive my sarcasm, but that kind of thinking is just elitist crap.
People can and will learn to be good to each other.

> You can't fight massed ignorance head-on. Best to just step aside and
> let it blunder into some other obstacle.

Wash your hands of the whole situation and let people make things worse
for themselves?  If you're so much better than most people, perhaps you
could share some of that great wisdom and experience and TEACH.  Ignorance
isn't fought head-on by slamming the ignorant against their shortcomings
over and over, ignorance is fought sidelong by joining in the ranks and
sharing your enlightened views.  It takes time and patience and
forgiveness, but it yields the greatest positive results.

> But we need a choice; right now we don't have much, and it doesn't take
> a genius to see the catastrophe coming.

It doesn't take a genius to see that catastrophe wouldn't be the END,
either.  Something bad might happen.  But your idea of "the death of
email" is absurd.  If the system becomes unusable, it will be unusable to
the spammers as well.  It will not have to be abandoned, it will just
change shape.  I think USENET is a fine example here.  It became unusable
for a while, but the results just didn't justify the level of inundation.
Equilibrium has been achieved.

J.
-- 
   -----------------
     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
   -----------------
 [cc] counter-copyright
 http://www.openlaw.org




More information about the PLUG mailing list