Censorhappy MFN.org syadmin files "spam" complaint

Raymond D. Mereniuk Raymond at fbn.bc.ca
Fri Mar 30 18:27:14 PST 2001


On 30 Mar 2001, at 10:44, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> I invite all cypherpunks subscribers to let this censorhappy -- not to
> mention humorless -- sysadmin know what they think about spam
> complaints over a joke posted here:
> "J.A. Terranson" <measl at mfn.org>

If you check out the mfn.org web site, Missouri FreeNet, you will 
note Mr. Terranson is Mr. MFN, or at least one of them.  Mr. 
Terranson has over 20 years experience in the BBS and Internet 
business.  A real pioneer you might state.  

He either has no humor or he fails to completely understand what 
he reads.  I find many of the anti-spam folk to be as bad as the 
spammers.  Where do you draw the line?  If people are so keen to 
jump on spammers they fail to properly understand the nature of a 
post you have a big problem.  Imagine what would happen if your 
local police force was given authority to police spammers?  If the 
police had the intellectual ability of Mr. Terranson many 
Cypherpunks would soon be in jail in a digital age version of the 
Inquisition.

A long time ago, or what seems a long time ago, I supported the 
notion that the Cypherpunk list be moderated.  At the time a major 
concern was 2 or 3 or 4 posts a day from an anonymous source 
disparaging the character of Tim May.  It was assumed the source 
of the posts was Dimitri Vulis (spelling?).  It was decided that there 
should be moderation and I thought it would be good.  I now 
understand the problems with that approach.  

The question is how do you deal with spam?  The anti-spam folks 
are looking more like bigoted Nazis racing to launch complaints on 
anything resembling spam.  Lots of users will complain to their ISP 
when the ISP implements anti-spam measures as their mailbox is 
obvious broke as there are no messages in it.

I try not to read spam and would never buy anything from anyone 
who spams or calls me at home.  I would love to be forever rid of 
spam but don't believe we can trust politicians to write the right law.  
Idealistically we could all not buy anything from spammers and 
eventually they would realize there was no return from spam and 
stop but some newbie schmuck is always going to buy something 
from the spammers so that won't work.  

Anyone have any thoughts on eliminating spam other than filters 
and hitting the delete key or button?



Virtually 

Raymond D. Mereniuk
Raymond at fbntech.com
FBN - Delivering on the policy of "Lowered Expectations"
http://www.fbntech.com/service1.html





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