[pmmail-list] Spam -- your definition

[David M. Nelson]

On Thu, 30 May 2002 13:47:56 -0300, PMMail OS/2 Support wrote:

>>Regarding item 5, I wrote my anti-spam filter to
>>look for "to be removed" and other similar text. It's proven quite
>>effective, with very few false positives.
>
>[Justifying his abuse of this list, Trevor replies:]
>
>Aha, great idea! I may add that to my spam filter.

Of course, it's most effective when specific filters such as the one
for this list do their work first.

>
>>Junk snail-mail is often mentioned as justification for spam. The
>>difference is that the sender bears most of the burden of cost in
>>traditional mail, which has the side benefit of subsidizing the postal
>>service. In e-mail, the balance of cost has shifted significantly
>>towards the recipient, and does nothing to benefit the messaging
>>infrastructure. Rather, many spammers try to use open mail relays,
>>which actually harms the infrastructure.
>
>True, but that's theft of resources, like if I took my bulk paper
>mail and tried to put it in someone's office mail and hoped they
>would pay to send it. It's not the content of the mail or the amount
>of it, it's the fact that I'm trying to use someone else's system
>without their permission that makes it wrong.

We are in agreement on the illegality of the theft of resources. My
point though was that spam and snail-mail junk distribute the burden of
cost differently, and that this difference must be accounted for in our
response to each.

To shift us slightly back towards topic, I'd like to point out that the
ICSL filtering language in PMMail is *very* good at allowing me to
reduce spam--much more so than the simple "Wizard" in Outlook.

David M. Nelson


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