=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Precedence: Junk ---------------- I am tired of spam. Usenet spamming has rendered that formerly animated and interesting discussion forum close to useless. E-Mail spamming has transformed the act of checking for new mail from an enjoyable activity into an exercise in irritation. Chat spamming has turned into an intrusive and constant source of harassment. Essentially, all forms of real-time or near real-time interaction on the Internet have turned into spam turf, where the user is forced to use their software to somehow filter out or ignore as much of the abuse as possible. There are stages of spam irritation. After your web site goes up, or you hop onto IRC, or you post an article on Usenet, spam starts trickling in. At first there are a few pieces a week, which most new spamees simply send to the bit bucket without fluttering an eyelid. Not a big deal. Then the spam begins to increase until you are receiving a piece or two a day. You begin to notice some of the spammers' more annoying tactics - mail with subject lines like "about that information you requested..." or "loved your web site!" that force you to actually read the first few lines before you realize that this is nothing more than junk mail. Anger begins to surge within you over the fake return addresses and misleading subject lines. You whip out your dusty mail filtering software and start trying to avoid reading the spam. Soon you realize that you can't win with filtering software - spammers change domains, source addresses, headers, and content daily if necessary. You change your e-mail address to joe+spambites@domain.com for all Usenet posts and web sites, but it's too late - they already have your real address. By now your spam has swelled to 60% of your daily incoming mail. You learn to read headers and start sending spam complaints to postmasters, root, and the Federal Trade Commission. The spam continues to mount. Then you realize that you are spending up to an hour a day dealing with spam complaints, filtering, and modifying your e-mail address and decide that all this headache is just not worth it. Back to grudging deletion, right where you started. It's a circle, and Internet users just can't win with the tools that are currently available. That said, I don't think that spam necessarily needs to stop. Spam, UCE, bulk e-mail, or whatever it is called, should go on as a method of communicating with potential customers on the Internet in much the same way junk snail mail continues. In it's current form, however, most spamming makes me want to personally draw and quarter the asshole on the other end of it. If only these jerks would take a hint from junk mailers they might actually get *more* customers. There are a few reasons why I don't mind standing at my mail box with the trash can next to me while I sort through junk mail. First of all, I do not directly bear the entire cost of receiving junk snail mail. I get it, I throw it in the trash if I am not interested. I feel a small amount of satisfaction because that junk mailer had to give the USPS money to send the mail. They had to pay for paper. They had to pay someone to design and print the catalog/brochure/flyer. All I had to do was throw it away and send a check to my trash removal service. Fine with me. Spammers, on the other hand, make my ISP store their crap on their hard drives, pay their upstream provider for eaten bandwidth, and dole out salaries to the support people that have to deal with spam complaints. Then the ISP has to charge me more to cover their costs. Even worse, some users still actually have to pay hourly rates for time spent online - time spent downloading junk mail. All the spammer has to do is get a 14 dollar a month Internet account, write the e-mail, and send it. This is not a reasonable relationship - the business should have to work harder and spend more money than the potential customer to get new business. Period. Secondly, I am usually getting junk mail because I have been targeted in some way. The ratio of junk snail mail I get that is pertinent to me is good - about 80% of the junk snail mail I receive a day is in some way related to my profession, hobbies, or interests. Sometimes I actually buy things, sign up for subscriptions, or in some way acknowledge those offers because it is obvious that the junk mailer has done some research into my demographic and attempted to send me something that I would actually care about. Therefore, I am obviously more likely to buy into whatever it is that they are selling. Not so with spammers. I hate spam - why would I want to buy a CD with 50 million e-mail addresses on it? I could care less about child porn. Why then would a spammer ask that I pay 20 bucks a month to view it? Which brings me to another point. Snail mail cannot contain illegal or fraudulent offers - it brings on heavy penalties. Most spam is fraught with this sort of crap, which makes all UCE look bad. (Hint to legitimate companies - fight against these people, or the stuff you send will be illegal, too.) I have a tip for all you spammers - do you want to get a better return on your spams? Target, target, target. Pissing a bunch of people off who could care less about buying your golf balls only hurts your reputation and makes it harder for you send mail in the future. Get a fuckin' clue. If I absolutely hate the junk snail mail I am receiving, I can usually find a legitimate return address to complain to. In a lot of cases I have actually been thanked for asking to be removed from a mailing list - many junk mailers would prefer not to waste money on customers who will never buy anything from them. Spammers have turned the process of hiding themselves into an art. Forged headers, false return addresses, untraceable phone numbers, and P.O. box addresses all make it more than difficult to get off their lists. They don't care if you don't want their XXX pics or credit cleaning scams. Yet they mysteriously want you to send them money. I don't know about you, but I would *never* do business with a company that doesn't care about me in the first place. That is why I, after over two thousand spams received, I have *yet* to purchase anything from a single one of these assholes. It all comes down to one thing. Spammers have pissed off the Internet as a whole and have probably ruined the chances of UCE ever getting a good name. It's too bad. If I fill out a survey at 3com and give them my e-mail address and demographic info, chances are I will never see a single piece of UCE they send me because my filter already threw their mail into the bit bucket before it had the chance to slide past my eyeballs. And I might have bought something, too. demonika demonika+fuck@demonic.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, Submissions = = Mail: jericho@dimensional.com (Mail is welcomed) = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = To receive new issues through mail, mail jericho@dimensional.com with = = "subscribe fuck". 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