10-06-2003, 03:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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"E-mail is broken" says Salon.com
The continuing decline of email as a viable communications tool due to spam is something I'm very interested in. I keep jumping to new anti-spam solutions, looking for the "perfect" way to protect myself from spam. This Salon.com article is a must-read for those of you who share my interest in this topic.
"Somewhere between that spam promoting spyware disguised as a chipper e-greeting and the latest e-mail-borne virus masquerading as an urgent software upgrade, something got lost. Not just a single overlooked urgent message from your boss, lodged in a sea of ghastly teenage bestiality spam, but something more fundamental, something more essential.
It's impossible to say exactly when the ritual of opening the e-mail in box went from being the lure that brought you online in the first place to a slough of deleting drudgery, full not only of irritating commercial messages that you never signed up to receive, but also of potential threats that could bring down your computer. But there's no use being nostalgic for that earlier, simpler time, whenever you got online, whether that was in 1984 or 1998. You can't go home again, or at least, you can't go back to a home without spam.
The questions now are: Can e-mail be saved? How bad is the problem, really? And what can be done to fix it? Salon interviewed four Internet pioneers, computer scientists who have been online longer than most of the rest of world and who, in some cases, helped set up the systems we use today..."
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10-06-2003, 03:16 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 127
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Ok, spam sucks. How about Salon pop-ups/unders? Thank God for Pop-Up Stopper. Or, about charging to see more then 7 paragraphs that don't really tell you much. :evil:
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10-06-2003, 03:47 AM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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I'm on my third anti-spam solution in as many months...
Can't seem to find best solution (for me). It's getting so that I'll get sixty messages, and only three aren't spam. Add to that: most solutions seem to trap emails from members here as spam. Defeats the purpose of a filter, if you have to ge back and read everything to make sure you didn't miss anything important... :roll:
SPAM s*cks and it's an ugly problem that requires a completely new method for it's removal. Perhaps it's time for a SMTP overhaul???
Steve
__________________
"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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10-06-2003, 04:13 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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e-mail, as it exists now, is archaic and obsolete. We need to replace it with something more advanced. Personally, I would like to see an Instant Message style solution replace e-mail, which would require recipients to authorize the sender before communications can be transferred.
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10-06-2003, 04:19 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Foo Fighter
e-mail, as it exists now, is archaic and obsolete. We need to replace it with something more advanced. Personally, I would like to see an Instant Message style solution replace e-mail, which would require recipients to authorize the sender before communications can be transferred.
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Perhaps, but
instant messaging : phone call
email : letter
I like having the non-immediacy of email. If you could keep that, and just require every sender be authenticated once, maybe that would work.
But I do frequently get emails from people I don't know, but emails that I'm *supposed* to get. So, I'll have grad students from other schools email me asking about my research. That could get annoying if I have to authenticate people I don't even know. How do I know if they're legit unless I get their email and read it?
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10-06-2003, 04:39 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 238
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Spam has ruined it for everyone
Spammers are the SCUM OF THE EARTH.
An evolution from the crap we've seen on TV Infomercials for years. Now they have a new medium, and are intruding UNINVITED. :snipersmile: :2gunfire: :bangin:
They've ruined a perfectly good thing - as if people couldn't ruin it enough on their own - passing stupid jokes and forwarding "urgent" urban legend crap. I swear - if I received a TYPED email from my father (vs. the FW: FW: FW: Blah Blah Blah email), I think I'd faint! :roll:
It's a shame - just like Salon says, we can't go back to the way it was, when it was enjoyable. It's simply ruined.
And we wonder why the next generation of kids prefers IM or SMS to email?! But then, those are getting spammed too.... 
Matt
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10-06-2003, 04:44 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 31
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webmail
I've been reading my mail more and more right off Yahoo's website. I pay for YahooPlus so I get a bigger mailbox and pop access to download emails to my desktop. I recently turned off Outlook's auto mail download though, once a week or so I download it manually. Yahoo's spam filter is pretty good too, normally only a couple spams a day get to my inbox (out of 70-100 in spam/junk folder). This is an address I've had for at least 6 years.
They have a new option that moves suspect spam to the junk folder and doesn't send it to the pop server (spam doesn't make it to my desktop).
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10-06-2003, 05:23 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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Re: Spam has ruined it for everyone
Quote:
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Originally Posted by MultiMatt
Spammers are the SCUM OF THE EARTH.
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Tell me about it. And their activities aren't simply isolated to e-mail infestation. They scour the net looking for any venue through which to peddle their goods and services. Recently I've had to remove several comments on my blog posted by spammers marketing porn and casino web sites. Bastards! :roll:
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10-06-2003, 05:49 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 718
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I used to think that there was no way to stop spam because, while countries like the US could enact legislation (like they are with telemarketers), it would be impossible to stop foreign spammers. And unfortunately, there are a lot of countries that wouldn't give a crap about stopping it, especially if they got a cut of proceeds.
But I read that 80% of spam originates from companies in the US. If that is the case, legislation could work. Except that these sleezeball spammers would probably just move their operations overseas, which means we are back to the problem of not being able to stop foreign spammers.
Email may be permanently ruined
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10-06-2003, 06:45 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 761
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Lately I've been getting 3 or 4 messages/day apparently originating from North Korea with characters I can't read. Maybe it is some sort of chinese spam? Anyway, by tracing the header information I can see that they all come from different mail-servers - apparently hacked or wide open and unsecured.
I've been emailing the admins for these hacked mail-servers informing them of the break-ins. Now, funny thing is: Not a single one of them has answered in any way. Maybe sysadmins don't care about this? (on a side note: one of the companies is a red hat linux hosting company...)
So, if people running mail-servers don't give a damn about securing their networks then I don't see any solution to spam...
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