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Fucked Up College Kids File 528
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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Precedence: Junk
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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
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