RE: [Asrg] Spam, defined, and permissions

> The spam problem was non existent 10 years ago. 
Not true.  We were actually starting to see it even in the BBS world days, 
before the widespread adoption of the Internet.

I'll never forget the feeling of dreadful foreboding that I got on looking at 
some messages sent over BBS conference forums, and realizing that I was seeing 
the beginnings of somethat that would become a plague... and wondering, even 
back then, if "mailing list moderation" would someday become a serious 
profession...!

> I am not proposing a charge for the average user. I'm saying
that a base service be included with the standard service and 
some parameters be biult around that for "normal" usage. Above
and beyond, I'd advocate blocks. At a certain point, the blocks
simply turn into a "contact us at 1-800..." and it's discussed and
possibly paid in advance.

This is the same kind of crap that was used in the early days of charging for 
telephone directory assistance (which used to be free) too.

It used to be that pay phones all had telephone books (as did individual 
private 
phones, for that matter).  The argument was that some users abused the "free" 
directory assistance, so there would be a generous monthly allowance (like 10 
or 
20, free) per month, and additional calls would only be charged if they 
exceeded 
that number.

[Of course, if their goal was REALLY to clamp down on abuse, they would have 
made ALL directory assistance calls free if the number was changed or otherwise 
not in the book, but say $5 if the number was in the book that had been 
available for at least (say) a month to allow for distribution time...]

Over a few years, the "free" allowance is reduced down to one or two, or maybe 
even to zero, and the cost per directory assistance call goes up and up.  
Eventually, it's not about curbing abuse, but rather just another profit 
center. 
:-(

[And of course, nobody even BOTHERS to put phone books at pay phones anymore... 
you want directory assistance, you pay.  Period.]

This crap is HUGELY and UNIVERSALLY disliked.

There is **ABSOLUTELY NO** reason to expect that charge-per-E-mail would follow 
a different path.  Nobody with an ounce of sense wants to go there.

Gordon Peterson                  http://personal.terabites.com/
1977-2002  Twenty-fifth anniversary year of Local Area Networking!
Support free and fair US elections!  http://stickers.defend-democracy.org
12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they "represent".
12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.



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