5 ms·

Why is a spam message to a publicly listed email address considered worthy of sharing or even paying any attention to?

ColinWright 4y ago
Because it's not just random spam sent to a list purchased from a dealer in scraped email addresses. This message is specific to HN ... it's a screenshot of a list of "top postings" on HN. So as such it's different, and directly related to HN.
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  It’s no different from any other spam message. Nobody here can do anything about it but you by removing your email from public.
  - krisoft 4y ago
    Or, the person who is sending them can read this message, feel ashamed and can stop sending them?
    - prmoustache 4y ago
      Do you really think they care? Why in hell would you put your email address in a public space in the first place if you care about spam?
      - striking 4y ago
        Because you'd like to accept direct messages from other HN users? And the spam is usually so minimal it's not a problem?
      - krisoft 4y ago
        > Do you really think they care? Why I bet that they believe that they are hustling on their legitimate startup. That's what I think. Maybe they don't. I don't see how it is a problem to try to reach for them this way. > Why in hell would you put your email address in a public space in the first place if you care about spam? I don't see how this is relevant to the question. The person who put their address unprotected up for spam can be foolish, and the person who is sending them the spam should stop. Both of these can be true at the same time.
        prmoustache 4y ago
        >Both of these can be true at the same time. True but decades of this has shown that people and their elected gov don't give a damn about trying to curb this by law and policing so we both know given the current state we are on our own to protect us about that.
      - leephillips 4y ago
        I care about spam. My email address, unobfuscated, has been publicly available for over 20 years. Why? So people can email me.
    - dopp0 4y ago
      I wish I was as hopeful as you, for real :)
oneplane 4y ago
Because unsolicited mass mailing IS spam, and spam is BAD.
- nemetroid 4y ago
  Yes, and that’s what the ”mark as spam” button is for.
  - ColinWright 4y ago
    Not everyone uses the mail service provided by TheBigG, and not everyone has a "mark as spam" button. My email is sufficiently esoteric as to ensure that a sizeable percentage (when last measured between 20% and 25%) of legitimate email gets put in the spam bin, rendering commercial spam filtering effectively useless.
  - leephillips 4y ago
    Where is this “mark as spam” button? I can’t find it.
    - nemetroid 4y ago
      In the Fastmail web client it's under the "More" menu item above the e-mail contents, and you can set up an IMAP folder to act as a spam sink for other clients, but it depends on your email provider.
      - leephillips 4y ago
        Yes, I suppose it would.
psyc 4y ago
This is either the Stack Overflowiest answer or just the Hacker Newsiest.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
gwbas1c 4y ago
Because it's a SPAM sent to our community; and directly relevant to us.

Because it's not just random spam sent to a list purchased from a dealer in scraped email addresses. This message is specific to HN ... it's a screenshot of a list of "top postings" on HN. So as such it's different, and directly related to HN.

unknownaccount 4y ago
It’s no different from any other spam message. Nobody here can do anything about it but you by removing your email from public.
- krisoft 4y ago
  Or, the person who is sending them can read this message, feel ashamed and can stop sending them?
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    Do you really think they care? Why in hell would you put your email address in a public space in the first place if you care about spam?
    - striking 4y ago
      Because you'd like to accept direct messages from other HN users? And the spam is usually so minimal it's not a problem?
    - krisoft 4y ago
      > Do you really think they care? Why I bet that they believe that they are hustling on their legitimate startup. That's what I think. Maybe they don't. I don't see how it is a problem to try to reach for them this way. > Why in hell would you put your email address in a public space in the first place if you care about spam? I don't see how this is relevant to the question. The person who put their address unprotected up for spam can be foolish, and the person who is sending them the spam should stop. Both of these can be true at the same time.
      - prmoustache 4y ago
        >Both of these can be true at the same time. True but decades of this has shown that people and their elected gov don't give a damn about trying to curb this by law and policing so we both know given the current state we are on our own to protect us about that.
    - leephillips 4y ago
      I care about spam. My email address, unobfuscated, has been publicly available for over 20 years. Why? So people can email me.
  - dopp0 4y ago
    I wish I was as hopeful as you, for real :)

oneplane 4y ago

Because unsolicited mass mailing IS spam, and spam is BAD.

nemetroid 4y ago
Yes, and that’s what the ”mark as spam” button is for.
- ColinWright 4y ago
  Not everyone uses the mail service provided by TheBigG, and not everyone has a "mark as spam" button. My email is sufficiently esoteric as to ensure that a sizeable percentage (when last measured between 20% and 25%) of legitimate email gets put in the spam bin, rendering commercial spam filtering effectively useless.
- leephillips 4y ago
  Where is this “mark as spam” button? I can’t find it.
  - nemetroid 4y ago
    In the Fastmail web client it's under the "More" menu item above the e-mail contents, and you can set up an IMAP folder to act as a spam sink for other clients, but it depends on your email provider.
    - leephillips 4y ago
      Yes, I suppose it would.

psyc 4y ago

This is either the Stack Overflowiest answer or just the Hacker Newsiest.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

gwbas1c 4y ago

Because it's a SPAM sent to our community; and directly relevant to us.