Peter writes:
Most Usenet groups would probably turn up an
example or two ...
As I've indicated, a great many Internet users never post to USENET and do
not participate in mailing lists.
The online archiving of mailing lists is a bad idea, IMO, independently of
the copyright issues it raises. But even when lists are archived online,
given that most people do not post to lists, this is not necessarily a
problem for spam address harvesters.
see above...
What I saw above does not alter my opinion. Only a minority of the Internet
community posts to mailing lists or USENET.
Please stop thinking the entire world is just
like you.
I do not believe that. For example, I'm quite confident that I receive
considerably more spam than most people do.
Put another way, I'm happy for you that spam is
not yet a major problem for you. It's a major problem
for lots of people on this list.
This list is probably not a representative cross-section of all Internet
users.
More importantly, it's perceived to be a growing problem
for the rest of the Internet, for which a solution will
be needed in the not too distant future ...
It is a growing problem. How urgently a solution is required is more of an
open question.