Yikes! E-mail harvesting possibility?

curry curry at pair.com
Mon Jun 9 16:50:01 EDT 2003


As Heather said, spam is collected by software, not people. So, 
whether or not to include addresses in the list is not really the 
question; of course, it's better to have them there. I support that. 
But that's not really the issue, so focusing on it may draw attention 
away from the real issue.

The danger comes when the addresses are placed on web pages. Then 
they become targets for the spam bots. It takes a while for your 
address to be collected, added to a spam collection, purchased, and 
used in spam. I'm seeing a lot of spam for the "sins" in not 
protecting my address which I committed two and three years ago. (I 
plan to eventually replace and retire that old address now that I've 
started being more vigilant with new ones.)

The best "philosophy" with this regard is yes, to enjoy lists, don't 
let spam take away any of your fun, but also take a very simple 
measure that stops most of the spam: keep the addresses off web pages.

So, if this list can do that, either by using an archive service with 
protection, or by restricting access to the archives based on a 
password, we will be able to enjoy our discussions about Rev 
thoroughly but also know we won't be helping the spammers!

Thanks,

Curry



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