Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 10:45:21 +0100
Reply-To: Paul Dickman <pauld@RADFYS.KS.SE>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: Paul Dickman <pauld@RADFYS.KS.SE>
Subject: Re: Abuse of Net, Spammer's Etc.
Chris Strickland wrote:
>Subject: Re: Abuse of Net, Spammer's Etc.
>
>A topic was thrown out to discuss on ways to prevent the anoymous spams. I
have
>one recommendation, have the listserver block all emails coming from:
>anon.penet.fi, I can't think of any reason why anyone on this list would have
>the need to send anoymous email. I understand a need in other areas, politics,
>etc., but why in a technical exchange?
(Mike Rhoads also put forward this suggestion in a separate post)
This is probably stretching it a bit, but some managers may not allow staff
participation in mailing lists and/or USENET using the company network
(and/or company time). One would have to be extremely unfortunate to work
for such a narrow-minded manager/company but I think most of us are aware
that such types do exist (and not only in Dilbert strips).
By no means am I including SAS Institute in this category for their policy
of not allowing SI staff to post to SAS-L. I consider SI to be far from
'narrow-minded'.
On a more serious note, with the increasing amount of work hours spent
online I'm sure we'll start seeing more and more companies introducing
policies on 'acceptable practice for internet use'.
I strongly agree with Mike Rhoads that SAS-L should be an open group --
i.e., open to messages from non-subscribers as well as subscribers. I don't
agree however, with discriminating en masse against one class of user (those
who post using anonymous servers). It's true that a large amount of (at the
risk of sounding like a US senator) 'unacceptable material' comes from these
servers but I don't think that justifies discriminating against those who
want to use the service for 'acceptable' reasons. I can distinctly remember
one legitimate posting to SAS-L from anon.penet.fi about a year ago (it
caught my attention because I wondered why this person wanted to maintain
anonymity) and there may well be others. Of course, anyone who wants to put
anon.penet.fi in their kill file is quite welcome to do so.
The signal-to-noise ratio on SAS-L is impressively high and I hope it stays
this way. There will, unfortunately, always be a noise component and I
think the best strategy is to simply ignore it. I personally get more
frustrated by replies to the list saying 'this is inappropriate, please
don't post this stuff here' than I do to the original spam.
Regards
Paul Dickman
---
Paul Dickman
Dept of Cancer Epidemiology Internet: pauld@ce.ks.se
Radiumhemmet Phone: +46 8 729 5599
Karolinska University Hospital Fax: +46 8 326 113
171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
