->
-> Love newsgroups but tired of the constant diet of spam? The
->crossposted exhortations to make money fast, to buy hair restorer or call
->the horny maidens eager to talk dirty. I've written a YARN/SOUPER utility
->called SPAM.EXE that helps you do something about it. It's freeware.
->
->[ snip snip ]
->
->SPAM - V 0.10 Beta - July 4, 1996 - For PC - Includes DOS and OS/2 versions.
-> Freeware
->BirdSoft Comuter Proucts - Rich Veraa - North Miami, Florida, USA
->
->I've placed a copy on
->
-> ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/incoming/spam01.zip
->
->or you can dowmload it from
->
-> http://www.netside.net/~rveraa/
->
-> Cheers,
-> Rich
->
->--
->|Fidonet: Rich Veraa 1:135/907
->|Internet: Rich.Veraa@907.sunshine.com
->|
->| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his/her own.
->
Rick has obviously been out here a while like a few of us, hence
he knows of what he is saying when it comes to spam. Not to take
away from his valiant efforts in providing an excellent utility
but there is a much larger problem at stake here that needs to be
addressed.
I think we all agree there is way too much spam, whether from an
honest mistake to vicious, deliberate junk postings to multiple
groups. Worse yet is the numbers of new, uninitiated internet
newbies that suddenly have access to this fine tradition of usenet.
Think about it, how did AOL manage to end up with the reputation
they have? Why is one of our most prominent concerns how to
eliminate this stuff?
Well meaning, profit motivated executives wanted to take in even
more money than they were! After all, just how much money can you
generate trying to get people to download static, aging files or
get them pumped up enough to carry on a conversation in the local
message bases with the three other dedicated hardcore posters?
'They' turned hundreds of thousands of people loose on the net,
with no direction, no formal sit down and serious discussion to
prepare them with a code of conduct, or moral ethics of the
usenet community. After all, isn't that why most of 'their'
domains end in '.com?'
Add the wondrous News services who felt they had tell us this
was some kind of Information Superhighway ... 'C'mon, get with
it, join the crowd or be left in the dust, blah, blah, blah." How
many clueless newbies jump on the bandwagon every week? Month?
I recall the first account I received with net access. Joe System
Manager (not his real name) came by, sat and discussed what I could
and could not do, what would be appropriate, etcetera. 'Joe S-M'
even showed me some examples of mildly annoying posting flatulence
that he would consider bad, but would let happen once or twice
before cutting my access off.
Even got the veiled threats about anything worse ... and the
immediate implications, not only affecting my access ability, but
quite probably escalating to a formal company disciplinary action.
I faultered a few times, but nothing more serious than a friendly
phone call, my admission of guilt to the mistake, and the "Don't
let it happen again!" speech. I even stopped by his office after
one incident, showed a genuine interest in my mistake. 'Joe S-M'
even showed me some of the 50 or so complaints he had received
overnight. (He later admitted that he only skimmed through about
five before he normally blew his stack and gave the 'Call you on
the Carpet' routine.)
Those were the good old days, when the SysAdmin laid down the
law and if you blew it, everyone knew it. Heck, now we have a
new service provider popping up daily somewhere and most areas
have several providers all competing for business.
Blow it on one and get dumped, you can be registered and online
by tomorrow at a new provider picking up where you left off. Try
to keep in mind this new provider either has no idea who you are
and why you are coming to him, or vaguely remembers your past
follies and gets you to say the magic words "I've learned my
lesson and mended my ways ..." (Sure, I believe anyone ONCE!)
Then, OTOH, these ISP's are usually small two, three - maybe
even four person operations. They have a heck of a time just
keeping the hardware going, helping out the users who have
problems connecting or learning some of the unfamiliar UNIX
commands and software, and keeping the business on course trying
to make a profit.
How much time are they going to dedicate to reading the mailbox
and dumping paying customers? The question then becomes "How
fast do I want to go bankrupt throwing these paying customers
off my system?"
I tend to think a centralized, maybe even a regionalized registry,
would be a good way to go. Get the prospective subscriber's info
similiar to an employment history, or credit application. The
prospective ISP can send up his 'history' request and get back
some kind of detailed listing documenting past systems, past
login names and mail addresses, any comments favorable or not,
and a 'form entry' to respond if you decide to take them on as a
customer to add your new customer listing - somewhat like a credit
history.
The few drawbacks are:
1) Who is going to host this thing? Most services have limited
resources and this animal is going to be a huge resource hog
with storage and access.
2) Some providers, like AOL, let you change your 'screen name'
like you change your underwear ... how do you deal with that?
Can these providers be forced to send in a 'change address'
form when the name change happens?
3) Would anyone be willing to contribute a moderate fee to
maintain access and service? Do you charge an annual fee,
or a per access fee?
4) How do you administer this animal and make sure those who
deserve access have it, yet protect the privacy concerns
everyone would be screaming about?
Obviously, those of us on mailing lists like this one don't have
some of these problems within them ... but we all subscribe to a
few newsgroups, I'm sure, and know the problem. Anyone else have
any ideas?
-- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ramsay D. Seielstad | mrhuey@wizvax.net; Af029@Detroit.Freenet.Org | | Schenectady, NY | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ | "No fancy terminators or trailers, No opinion, Just an average, everyday | | guy with a bunch of unrelated hobbyist activities that have no significant | | use or value other than to amuse myself and occupy my free time ... and | | trust me, these ain't MY employer's opinions or views" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+