Monday, September 29, 2003

Second-hand Spam?

Everyone seems to have finally acknowledged that SPAM is a serious problem. Especially because so many viruses have been spread in a similar manner. However, there is a lesser-known scourge that I am starting to get annoyed with - something that I like to call second-hand SPAM.

Don't know what I am talking about? In my opinion, second-hand spam are unwanted e-mails sent to you indirectly - i.e. via a mailing list that you are on. This would include both e-mails inappropriate for the list as well as people who put the list's e-mail on a different list.

Many lists enforce posts only from subscribers, but if a rouge mailer joins as a subscriber, he or she could then easily stick the list's address on a distrib list on their own - this is annoying, especially if the idiot doing this assumes that all other people on this specific list care about the same issues as he or she does.

But what I really hate are list moderators who use a double-standard when deciding if a post gets through or not. For example, I know of a community-oriented list where the moderator shoots down classifieds - i.e. someone selling furniture or organizing a trip outside the context of the community, but would like to include community members - but will put through posts about how nice his/her recent vacation was.

Even if we find ways to effictively eradicate first-hand SPAM, there is no way to eradicate the causes of Second-Hand SPAM - Poor Judgement!

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