Re: Munging e-mail addresses

Matthew Thomas <mpt...@spamfree.land> wrote:

> Can anyone e-mail you? No. Even if they're really clever? No.  

Yes actually they can if they are really determined to do so, 
several people have done so quite recently.  

> I disagree. For example, Joris e-mailed me the other day to ask my 
> permission for him to include some of the a.a-a FAQ on his Web site.  
> Would that have been appropriate to post to a.a-a? No, because it 
> was a private matter between the two of us, and it would have been 
> quite boring to everyone else. So he unmunged my address, and e-
> mailed me.  Simple. People who want to communicate with you 
> privately have no such option.  

That's OK, as I've already said...my anti-spam method for email is 
very anti-social. Timo Salmi uses something similar and only 
authenticates certain people to email him.  

Freedom to email other users is a two-edged sword. I have had some 
quite unpleasant unsolicited email in the past from users responding 
privately to something I have written in public newsgroup 
discussion...usually an RFD/CFV debate which can become very heated. 

I post a lot to many newsgroups and readers hit their "Reply to 
Sender" buttons with monotonous regularity. What really used to 
irritate me was those who both email you and post publicly the same
message and do not tell you they have done it. Grrrrr.

I could, but do not, complain to ISPs about private email received, 
as many users do. Frankly, I do not want to receive such unsolicited 
email in the first place.  

Each user has to choose their anti-spam methods for both email spam
and newsgroup spam. Last year my junkmail had exceeded 150 per month 
and seemed to be rapidly rising so I made my choice of action.

I also choose not to try to email to munged email addresses. If you 
disagree with my choice then it is your privilege to disagree. 

If you choose to use a munged email address that is also your 
privilege it is widespread practice these days. My choice is not to  
email people with munged addresses.

+-------------+--------------+-------------------------------+
|  o o o   o  |  <o      o>  | Just because we disagree      |
| <><><>   <> |  /-+-- --+X  |  doesn't mean I have to kill  |
| ||||||   || | />        <\ |   you, unless I want to.      |
+-------------+--------------+-------------------------------+

Bye,

Related ASCII art in the Gallery

Explore these categories from our collection of 11,000+ artworks:

 ,~~--~~-.
+      | |\
|| |~ |`,/-\
*\_) \_) `-'

 __
 \  \     _ _
  \**\ ___\/ \
X*#####*+^^\_\
  o/\  \
     \__\

.------------.
|\\//\\//\\//|
|//\\//\\//\\|
|\\//\\//\\//|
|//\\//\\//\\|
'------------'

   _______
 /` _____ `\;,
/__(^===^)__\';,
  /  :::  \   ,;
 |   :::   | ,;'
 '._______.'`jgs

 _  _
(o)(o)--.
 \../ (  )hjw
 m\/m--m'`--.

  _  _
/` \/ `\_  _
\     /` \/ `\
 '.  .\      /
   \/  '.  .'
         \/jgs

Make your own ASCII art

Turn images, text or 3D into ASCII, or draw your own – right in your browser.