Re: OT: In defense of anonymity

[LRod]

I'll cheerfully give my real email address to humans.

How?

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Person to person contact or email; not by newsgroup. I'm with him. My nomme de plume is one of the worst kept secrets but it keeps the spam at bay. That's the reason I use it. It also keeps the Board of Nursing off my ass if I write something politically (gasp) incorrect.

[Leon]

Person to person e-mail does not go directly to the intended recipient as it is first held by the ISP.

[Leon]

I have 2 e-mail addresses and one is use specifically for certain tasks. It gets little to absolute no spam, 1 or 2 a week. The name I use here gets probably 75 hits a day minimum. I use mail washer to cull out the BS.

[Swingman]

I just make it hard for machines, scriptkiddies, and the lazy.

A relatively determined 6th grader, with minimum computer skills, could use a combination of Goggled wRec messages and one web page visit to not only send me e-mail, but score a picture, or two.

But what's in a name? .. apparently a SSAN is all that REALLY counts these days.

[Dave Hinz]

(snip)

Well...

I've been down the "let's try to filter everything" road, and it's a pain in the ass, yes. About 2 years ago, I signed up for spamcop.net as a mail filtering service. I get about 100 spam a day, and all but

1 or 2 are held in the "suspect spam" folder. I've never had a real message go into that folder, and they make it easy to report the spam that leaks through so _they_ can tweak their filters for all of their subscribers. I apply 16 or 17 realtime blackhole lists to my filters, and it works _very_ well. 30 or 40 bucks a year.

Another option, if you're running windows and have an always-on internet connection (not dialup) is a challenge/response system. I've used ZAEP (zaep.com), and it works well. Unless one of your friends who you have whitelisted (or who has whitelisted themselves) turns into a spammer, it's going to be 100%. Easy install, shareware, and again, 30 or 40 bucks to buy.

Lots of good solutions out there. Hiding your identity is one way to avoid spam, but being reachable, while still being protected, is preferable to me.

Dave Hinz

[TWS]

Well good for you. You play with loaded pistols too? Pretty strong words for a guy who is simply protecting himself from all the spammers who mine these newsgroups for email addresses.

I could give a hoot if he wants to keep his email address to himself. If he's got something to say that's relevant to the wreck then this is the place to say it - I don't need his email, home address, or telephone number to share ideas with the guy.

TWS - a guy who is also cowardly keeping (some of) the spammers away.

[LRod]

If you consider the fun of target shooting to only be effective when the pistols are loaded, then yes. Otherwise, your comment has no value.

Please. You sound like a person who thinks that having an unlisted phone number prevents telephone solicitation. Wake up and join the

20th Century. Telephone solicitors dial numbers in sequence. They don't need a directory listing.

Spam is often done the same way. I have gotten spam addressed to me and cc'd to fifteen or twenty variations of my actual email name. Obviously that spam would have reached me if I'd never posted once with my real email address.

My point is that he claims he will email any human. So how does that happen? How do I get ahold of him? He has no email address (that's discernible. I can only assume he wants me to post mine and then he'll email me. He wants me to do what he's too frightened to do. He wants me to expose myself without exposing himself. I say again, bullshit.

'Some of' is right.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[TWS]

I'd rather join the 21st Century, thank you. And I don't have any desire to make it easy for the spammers.

I call this smart, not cowardly but YMMV.

TWS

[Norman D. Crow]

Guess I'm really lucky. Our little local ISP uses "Vircom" to firewall and AV our mail. Sometimes 75-80 per day. Originally they would send a report daily or weekly(my selection of frequency), but even that got to be a PITA, so deselected the report. Once in a great while they will stop an email from someone that I wanted, but I think I finally got all of them sorted out & on the "whitelist". Generally I only se 1 or 2 spam per week(or less), or I might see 1 or 2 of a new attempt until Vircom gets it trapped.

[Bob Haar]

The delete function in my mail client works very effectively on SPAM. You might be bothered by it in you inbox, but I have never had a problem.

However, I do have a problem with advice or comments from someone who won't give his/her name.

One funny thing is that my wife, who never use Usenet and emails only to a small circle of friends, gets several times the amount of SPAM that I do, even though I have been participating in USENET for about 30 years using my real name and and a real email address. Hiding behind a fake address does little to prevent SPAM.

[Swingman]

That's too bad. At least a couple of the most profound, learned works of all time were done on a 'first name only', anonymous basis. Go no further than the wRec on a daily basis to know that an included "name" doesn't guarantee good advice or comments.

[George]

Why? It's the message, not the messenger, that matters.

[LRod]

That's not true for a lot of people. All you have to do is look at one of the political threads with a focus on news anchors for a general example.

For me, when Nahmie or David Eisan or Keith or a number of other people I lend a lot more credibility to their posts (pousts, David) than I do to a nameless hit-and-run poster with an alleged email address of [e-mail] whoever that might be.

Same with spelling, if you want to start another debate.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Prometheus]

Then don't expose yourself. CYA (Cover your ass) What in the heck is wrong with just keeping it on the newsgroup? I can see the problem with posting under several names, but who cares if you call a guy "Woodchuck" or "Bob Smith" (for example) Even if the name looks real, you still don't know that that's the guy's name, and I wonder why it would matter. If someone needs you to e-mail them, they can post their address in response to a query on the group- it's not necessary to put it in every post.

I don't get any, unless you count "Deltagrams"- and I don't, especially since they're sending me a free set of turning tools as a result! (Had to buy a Midi Lathe, but I was going to do that anyhow.)

As an on-topic FYI- Delta is running the promotion for a free set of turning tools ($99) or a bed extension (approx $50) with purchase of a Midi Lathe if you get it before 12/31/04. Didn't see it anywhere but the Delta website, so I figured it was worth a mention.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Leon]

If I told you my name was Leon Redbone or Leon Russel would that make my comments or advice more credible to you?

[George]

So you suspend your powers of reason in deference to authority? Or is it just cronyism?

N>

[Mark & Juanita]

The concentric e-mail address that I used to use when posting is up to about 125 to 200 spams per day that the concentric filter catches and tags as [junkmail]. There are about 20 spams per day that my own filters catch and about 5 to 10 slip through both of those. Unfortunately, for the concentric filter to catch that many, it is too aggressive and sometimes gets false positives (Grizzly, Northern Tool, Jamestown, and Penn State get caught regularly, as did several order confirmations from Woodworker's Supply), so I have to do a quick scan through the junkmail bin to verify that nobody's in there before deleting the lot.

[Leon]

Actually I see all the spam out there but like you choose to make sure it is Spam before down loading or deleating. I trust Mailwasher for about 98% of the decision making.

[Bruce Farley]