3 ms·

I guess we all have different views on ethics, maybe I'm just used to seeing spam and tossing it out. I find it harmless now because I'm so used to getting it..

I guess we all have different views on ethics, maybe I'm just used to seeing spam and tossing it out. I find it harmless now because I'm so used to getting it...but its interesting to see how offended people get when they see unsolicited virtual mail which can be deleted with a click of a button. I'm actually more concerned about the actual spam in my real world mailbox that USPS dumps 3 times a week, no opt-out button there.

thaumaturgy 11y ago
Among my responsibilities is systems administration for hosted services for customers, including email. What is for you a minor nuisance is for me a major time-consuming headache. For instance, even with a top-of-the-line modern mail stack, including SpamAssassin and greylisting and so and so forth, enough spam was still getting through to customer inboxes that I've had to develop additional non-trivial software specifically for dealing with it. I beat this drum occasionally because I don't want to have to pit my meager resources against the resources of someone like YCombinator who are willing to provide funding (and introductions to enormous amounts of even more funding) to companies that are OK with spamming. And I'm not including B2B cold emails as "spam", even if they're written as a template, so long as there's an actual human behind them and they aren't being sent out en masse (for example, Locbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672162).
wpietri 11y ago
At this point I have been hearing this sorry excuse for twenty years. At least it once had the value of novelty. Spam is illegal, so that's one good sign it might be unethical. About 90% of email is spam [1]; the reason you aren't spending all day "deleting with the click of a button" is that a lot of smart people and a lot of computing power are devoted to keeping most of that spam out of your inbox. You should be thankful for the people who get offended about this stuff, because its only their reactions and their hard work that have kept email a usable medium. [1] https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG_2012-2014Q2_Spam_Metrics_Report16.pdf https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG_2...
deleted 11y ago
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nommm-nommm 11y ago
You can opt out of some forms of real life "spam." Info here - http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicit...

thaumaturgy 11y ago

Among my responsibilities is systems administration for hosted services for customers, including email. What is for you a minor nuisance is for me a major time-consuming headache. For instance, even with a top-of-the-line modern mail stack, including SpamAssassin and greylisting and so and so forth, enough spam was still getting through to customer inboxes that I've had to develop additional non-trivial software specifically for dealing with it. I beat this drum occasionally because I don't want to have to pit my meager resources against the resources of someone like YCombinator who are willing to provide funding (and introductions to enormous amounts of even more funding) to companies that are OK with spamming. And I'm not including B2B cold emails as "spam", even if they're written as a template, so long as there's an actual human behind them and they aren't being sent out en masse (for example, Locbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672162).

wpietri 11y ago

At this point I have been hearing this sorry excuse for twenty years. At least it once had the value of novelty. Spam is illegal, so that's one good sign it might be unethical. About 90% of email is spam [1]; the reason you aren't spending all day "deleting with the click of a button" is that a lot of smart people and a lot of computing power are devoted to keeping most of that spam out of your inbox. You should be thankful for the people who get offended about this stuff, because its only their reactions and their hard work that have kept email a usable medium. [1] https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG_2012-2014Q2_Spam_Metrics_Report16.pdf https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG_2...

deleted 11y ago

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nommm-nommm 11y ago

You can opt out of some forms of real life "spam." Info here - http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicit...