Subject: Re: Spam From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 22 Jan 2004 02:13:08 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3283726388649277KL2065E@naggum.no> * Klaus Harbo | TMDA has effectively reduced the amount of spam I receive from many | hundreds per week (my personal high was 300 a day over the course | of more than two weeks) to essentially zero. TMDA relies on white | lists and automated responses to mails from unknown senders. While this probably works to keep unwanted initial contacts out of your mailbox, e-mail works so well because it is a very convenient initial contact medium. The threshold to making the first contact with a relative stranger is already high, and automated answer that requires manual intervention is worse than calling people you don't know and only getting their answering machine telling you that they screen their calls. I hate answering marchines and don't use them, and I tend to hang up and try again later if I get one. (For this reason, I really love SMS, which I also send before I call people to tell them what I'm going to call about and when. This habit was picked up by a number of lawyers I know, who say it saves them and their clients a lot of time.) I have to admit that I have received TMDA-style responses from people I have tried to communicate with and just found that it was not worth it. This is a false negative that I think argues very strongly against TMDA-style solutions. If something like this is necessary, it should be handled by the mail clients automatically and not involve human time at all. I have not seen any attempt to do this, but would love to hear about it. -- Erik Naggum | Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.