On Tue, 2 Mar 2004, John Leslie wrote:
Dave Crocker <dhc2(_at_)dcrocker(_dot_)net> wrote:
What makes this such an "interesting" problem is the critical need for
spontaneous (unsolicited and uncoordinated) communication is many
human activities. Eliminating the ability to have new people show up
without an "appointment" will cripple some activities.
I find it very interesting that jabber/IRC/etc -- designed quite
specifically to allow people to show up without an "appointment" --
don't seem to suffer from spammers...
"Yet". Don't forget to add the "yet".
Is there anybody who doubts that if irc became "the" mail paradigm,
spammers would in very short order create automated tools to join and
spew? Until of course they were booted, blacklisted, filtered.
Is there some intrinsic reason that you think that a fundamentally open
channel is somehow closable to spammers and automated tools?
I could be mistaken, but I don't believe that such a reason exists. I
don't think that they are targeted for spam primarily because of a (as
of now) limited market and the ease of targeting mail.
rgb
--
Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525
email:rgb(_at_)phy(_dot_)duke(_dot_)edu