05-08-2003, 05:30 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
The Most Irritating Spam Blocking System Ever Created
Ok, I just have to come out and say this: those of you using spam blocking solutions that require me to authenticate email messages coming from the Pocket PC Thoughts server are just killing me. :| PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, everyone add the pocketpcthoughts.com domain to a white list or a list of trusted senders.
I cannot possibly spend the time necessary to authenticate, sign up, click on boxes, send carrier pigeons, or do whatever else each of these services require email senders to do. I appreciate your desire to be spam-free, I really do. These services work fine for small amounts of email going from person to person, but they wreak havoc with any sort of automated system (especially forum software). So, John using Mailsnare, you never got your forum registration message today, and I can't even add myself to your list of trusted senders because the email messages Mailsnare sends back have no instructions on how to do so, just a single line of text saying that I'm "not trusted". :roll:
And the person using the planetnerd.net domain? You've set your email account to spam@planetnerd, yet you have your account set to watch threads. So every single time our forum software sends you an update about a thread your watching, your server bounces the message, and it comes back to me. :| We've hacked up phpBB to completely hide email addresses - no one but admins can access it, ever. It would be a great help to the admin team here if everyone could verify the email address they have in their profile (click on Preferences in the upper right corner under the banner ad). Remember we use this email address for picking contest winners too, so it's important that it be valid.
This frustration also extends to those of you using auto-responders. Here's what happens: many of you turn on auto-responders before leaving your office for whatever reason, but you're still watching certain threads on the site. When that thread is updated, our server sends out an update email to the account you have on file. Your email server then politely sends an email response back to my server informing it that you're out of town, sick, or otherwise away, and that message gets forwarded to my email Inbox. Sometimes it happens multiple times because some email servers aren't smart enough to avoid a mail loops. People, people, people - these are email messages I really don't need to see. :wink: If possible, please add pocketpcthoughts.com to an ignore list for auto responders.
I adore and treasure our readers, but stuff like this taints the otherwise fun experience that is Pocket PC Thoughts. :mrgreen: I also don't mean to embarrass anyone, or to point fingers, but one of the limitations of phpBB is that I can't look up users based on their email address, so it's very hard to get in touch with certain users based on the limited amount of information that I have.
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 05:39 PM
|
|
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
|
|
This is only going to get worse. I read in the last day or so that one of the big ISPs (Earthlink maybe) is going to a permission based email system.
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 05:54 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rlobrecht
This is only going to get worse. I read in the last day or so that one of the big ISPs (Earthlink maybe) is going to a permission based email system.
|
<sigh> :|
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 06:18 PM
|
|
Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 735
|
|
Yup, it is common courtesy to add people to 'white lists' to prevent them (i.e. Jason) from doing work that benefits you.
Furthermore, when I leave the office now, I do not turn on AutoResponders anymore. It is my job (not my e-mail) to inform people I am going to be out and who can help them in my absence! As Jason have found, more than often, the auto-responders annoy people rather than help them!
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 06:20 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 49
|
|
Email as we know it, reaching an end
This is just a sign of things to come. And this particular thing is going to be the end of email, at least as we use it today. The gigantic spam beast has driven all but the last bit of life from email, and I see its only future on intranet based systems. Every measure that has been put down to reduce spam has simply caused the spam to mutate, just like any other determined parasite. The ability of spammers to forge headers in their messages may ultimately be the death blow to the geek's favorite method of communication.
Here's an example, something that happened to me. I start getting messages that I think are spam -- they are guys replying to a "come see my webcam" message from a 20's girl -- the message looks like they are replying to something that I had sent them. Then I start getting hundreds of 'undeliverable' return messages from things I never sent. Come to find out some spammer is forging his headers to look like they came from me. Now I find that many of my friends that use html mail aren't getting my messages -- I've been added to the spammer list. It's enough to make me puke.
Blue
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 06:21 PM
|
|
Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 93
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rlobrecht
This is only going to get worse. I read in the last day or so that one of the big ISPs (Earthlink maybe) is going to a permission based email system.
|
<sigh> :| |
I dont understand why you dont send automails (such as reply informs) from a non existing account...just make sure you put on the bottom of each one that it is, then at least u wont get so much parp yourself!
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 06:36 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 193
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by scargill
I dont understand why you dont send automails (such as reply informs) from a non existing account...just make sure you put on the bottom of each one that it is, then at least u wont get so much parp yourself!
|
That was my thought exactly. People don't need to be able to reply to an automatically-generated email like a thread subscription, so just set the from or reply-to address on outbound auto-emails to a "blackhole" account that points to /dev/null or something. Problem solved.
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 06:49 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by scargill
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rlobrecht
This is only going to get worse. I read in the last day or so that one of the big ISPs (Earthlink maybe) is going to a permission based email system.
|
<sigh> :| |
I dont understand why you dont send automails (such as reply informs) from a non existing account...just make sure you put on the bottom of each one that it is, then at least u wont get so much parp yourself! |
That's something I can look into, but most of phpBB's functions are tied into a single email address AFAIK, and for quite a few things there needs to be a real person at the other end (forum registration problems, etc.)
Besides which, that doesn't address the problem, it just hides it - resources are still being wasted on both ends.
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 07:28 PM
|
|
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 545
|
|
This is why I use Hotmail
I use Hotmail for all websites that need a e-mail address. If the website sends out something, it sticks out in the lsit of spam like a sore thumb. Most days, I delete delete delete. But I always skim the list before check all of those messages and blast them. At home, I use Outlook (patched up of course) and it has a decent Junk mail handling system. I only get a spam twice when they change their address and then all I have to do ti get rid of it is right click add to junk senders. I think it also seems to filter things out by subject automatically too. I don't see much spam there. At work we use Groupwise and I have yet figured out how to stem the tide of spam there. My work account used to be free of spam until some doofus decided to put the whole companies e-mail address on the companies home page! :bad-words: Now I get more spam then real mail. Also, does yoru company spam themselves? Ours does. I constantly get e-mail from people I only see twice a year telling the whole damn campus about the forum they are holding on german american poetry or folk singing or something like that! :bad-words:
Auto-responders....never use them and never will. With Groupwise's web interface, I just check my mail. If it's something important, it gets my time. If it ain't, seeya!  :alfdance:
|
| |
|
|
|
05-08-2003, 07:45 PM
|
|
Theorist
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 262
|
|
Re: This is why I use Hotmail
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by gorkon280
My work account used to be free of spam until some doofus decided to put the whole companies e-mail address on the companies home page! :bad-words: Now I get more spam then real mail.
|
Maybe you can ask your company web designer to use this technique :
http://www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html . It masks your e-mail adress in the html, but it's still normaly interpreted and visible in web browsers, so people can still click a mailto: link that is made this way. Alot of bots and spiders that crawl websites lurking for e-mail adresses can't interpret this correctly, although some of them are catching up.
Take a look at one of my sites : http://gprs.ivanencindy.be , all mailto: links on that page work, but you won't find a single e-mail address when you look at the page source.
Kind regards,
Ivan
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
