[SECC] question on email - spamarrest

[Gordon Macie]

This reflector is for contest discussions. Please discuss this privately.

Gordon N4LR
LIST ADMIN


________________________________
 From: Lee Hiers <aa4ga at contesting.com>
To: secc <secc at contesting.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [SECC] question on email - spamarrest
 

On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 9:15 PM, <email2013 at k4ama.com> wrote:

> Interesting list of responses, to my email... not seeing much to help Jeff and his initial question.

If you want to pick nits, your reply was of no help in answering
Jeff's initial question either.  The question was "Anyone have  method
for getting off the spammer list without abandoning the email
address":  suggesting a "service" such as Spamarrest doesn't address
being removed from the spammers' list either, does it?

Actually, there were several replies to the OP that were equally
helpful (well, more helpful IMO) - primarily, to use different email
addresses for different purposes.

For example, if I have to register with a website for some reason, say
ARRL, I will use the email address arrl at aa4ga.com.  I still receive
any email they send, and if they were to sell my address, or if their
mailing list is somehow compromised and I start getting a lot of spam
addressed to the arrl at aa4ga.com address, I can easily filter out all
such email.

Not only that, but reporting spammers to spam at uce.gov at least has the
potential to have email addresses removed from spammers, but I
seriously doubt it would make any noticeable difference.

> Spamarrest and other 'services' DO NOT play nice with lists and group emails.

<SNIP>

> You guys are hating on spamarrest for issues it is not designed or intended to handle.  It should not be used for list participation...   it says it can be... but as you well know.. it just doesn't not work well.

So, you admit that it does not operate as advertised?  Most of the
anti-Spamarrest sentiment expressed here had little to do with lists
anyway, did it?  I know in my case, I administer a 2500+ member
mailing list - we mail out monthly newsletters, it's not a discussion
list.  If someone has started using Spamarrest and I get a
confirmation message from them, I just report the confirmation message
as spam and delete the recipient.  No real problem.  I'm not missing
much other than the few clicks it takes to accomplish that.  The
potential recipient is missing out on whatever information he
requested to receive.

Here are a couple of non-list examples:

N4GG has written a popular antenna article (maybe more than one -
sorry Hal!); I'm sure he receives questions via email weekly on this
article, which was written several years ago.  Out of the goodness of
his heart, he writes a detailed answer to someone's question, and is
then greeted by a confirmation message by one of the anti-spam
"services" that gives him some hoops to jump through!  He has every
right to be pissed off!

Last year I became interested in SOTA (Summits On The Air) and sent an
email to the manager of the Carolinas association, N4EX about setting
up an association in Georgia.  Well, Rich uses one of these "services"
and I received a confirmation.  I just wrote it off - figured I'd
either not get involved with setting up an assocation in Georgia or
would find another contact.  Amazingly enough, a week or two later,
Rich answered my email - apparently even though he was using an
anti-spam "service", he felt the need to still go through unconfirmed
messages.

If I'm listening on 40m phone (I do a bit of that - just listening, I
don't work phone) and hear someone who says something like "I'd love
to find a 40 pF doorknob capacitor, but they're scarce as hen's teeth"
and I remember I have one I'm not using, go to qrz.com to email the
guy to let him know he can have it for postage and receive a
confirmation request from an anti-spam "service", guess who's going to
end up paying 20 bucks for one at Surplus Sales?

> For eliminating spam on  an email address it works great.

I'm sure it does eliminate spam...along with a lot of email that isn't.

> Performs as represented and I am very happy with the service.

Hey, you're welcome to be happy with the "service", but realize the
cost is more than the 10 or 12 bucks a month they charge - you may
never know what you miss out on because a lot of people won't put up
with that crap.

> Now...  stop hating on spamarrest... it is the fault of the user not the service...

I respectfully disagree.  IMO it is a flawed concept and product.

73 de Lee
--
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
www.aa4ga.com

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