[ale]OT It begins...

[ChangingLINKS.com]

On Thursday 29 January 2004 07:43, Doug McNash wrote:
> 
> > 
> > That is 3000+ spams since Christmas. :(
> 
1.
> It seems to me folks are indirectly and unfairly criticizing the list
> maintainer.  

Nobody is criticizing the list maintainer. At issue is whether or not the 
software we use makes it easy for our email addresses to be picked up.

2.
> I carefully use my email address and only get a couple
> spams a week.  I don't think this list is much of a resource to the
> spammer scum. 

The list was a source of spam. 
To prove it, I simply put "changinglinks atlanta" in Yahoo.
The first page that comes up is:
http://www.ale.org/archive/ale/ale-2003-03/msg00502.html
which clearly "gives up" the email address "retief  @  larp.com"
So in the past every message that we post would make it very easy for email 
harvesting programs to collect our email addresses. As I said before, the ALE 
list comes up for practically anything related to Atlanta. (Want some 
"atlanta emails"? just go to Yahoo, and surf to #25 with your harvesting 
software ;) ) That is how easy it was.

3.
Today, using the same test, the second URL I got was:
http://ike.room17.com/pipermail/ale/20031230/004813.html
>>>
>>>To my suprise, the email addresses were NOT so easy to get. 
>>>
Email addresses are now changed like so: <stephen at touset.org>
. . . and instead of being linked to as an email address, the URL points to
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale

4.
Unfortunately, as I kept surfing the archives (like an email harvesting 
program would) I was able to find clear email addresses (even this year) see:
http://ale.org/archive/ale/ale-2004-01/msg01250.html

5.
The point is that we need to make our entire system uniform with the 
"ike.room17.com" email handling.


> I would like to thank the list maintainer for their (unpaid) service and
> good job.

Ditto.
-- 
Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
Drew Brown
http://www.ChangingLINKS.com