Flutterby™! : Pay to Send

Pay to Send

2006-03-31 23:16:37.243729+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

In an exchange pulled from a mailing list hosted on this server, Leo writes about the problem with "pay to send" email schemes like "Goodmail".

[ related topics: Net Culture Economics ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2006-04-02 11:58:24.39513+00 by: meuon [edit history]

E-mail is the most borken thing on internet, and 'pay to send' schemes are not the answer. I used to think the answer was getting people to register to get a 'key' like SSL certs or domain names, or maybe something like "Lightweight Identity Protocol". -Of course the register's have (and will) succumbed to spammers, scammers and scum, so that's not an answer.

Practical answers for today:

Tiered, semi-disposable e-mail addresses. a BOFH-able RFC Compliance Enforcing mail server like Courier, TMDA if you really want to be restrictive. and sane levels of e-mail filtering, but you still have to let some dreck through.
And the most important thing: a clue about how and where to use an e-mail address. For example: OnLine Registrations, 'Send this joke/page/card/.. to a friend forms'... often (if not always) are spam e-mail sources.
And I'm not like most people, I actually don't mind UCE: Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail: A valid well formed e-mail with proper addresses, proper return addresses, and a real product. I get a couple a day, some of which I actually want: products, deals, info of use to me.
Spammers: people selling dreck, phishing for information, selling vaporware, illegal, or bogus products, with invalid return e-mail addresses, malware and bad tracking links/code in the e-mail, from stolen/hacked servers or zombied end user machines.... (and that includes Blog Spammers as well) well.. Let's just say: Spammers/scammers will stop spamming/scamming when they start getting the public televised floggings and executions they deserve.

Sadly, people think I'm joking.