I have no objections to keeping my email address
posted in the archives... I'm pretty sure that if the
email our friend received were a direct result from
the archives, we would have all received it.

The point of what you are about to read is, we'd only
be able to prevent one email bot method by removing
the archive. I think the possibility of drawing in
more fans of Alternate Reality through the archive
(which is how I found the mailing list) far outweighs
the risk of being put on a spam list.

My reasons follow, but don't feel obligated to read it
if you don't want to. It's long, and only related to
the mailing list & spam as a topic, not the game.

Take a look at the "To:" line in the header:
From: Tammy Davidson [pk475zkx--bigfoot.com]
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 8:12 PM
To: ar--zoomemail.com; catchall--zoomemail.com
Subject: Amazing secret to picking up women tw

It uses multiple addresses using the (at)zoomemail.com
domain... I'd be surprised if they didn't also send
hundreds of blind carbon copies to other zoomemail.com
members.

For a spammer that uses randomly generated emails, any
2- or 3-letter combination in front of any valid
domain is like striking gold, because it is SUCH a
common occurance for someone to use their initials as
their email address. They're almost guaranteed to be
valid.

In Mark's case, his personalized domain most likely
comes from a company that issues domain names. His
domain is really something completely different, and
marktaw.mailshell.com (or whatever it is) is just an
alias for another larger, registered domain, so his
real email address is probably something like
ar_marktaw--mailshell.com or 65124AU--mailshell.com or
something - which is why it, too, can be hit with
random spamming, in spite of the "unique" domain name.
That, or...

As Robert said, email bots. To my knowledge, those
can work in two ways - the first is to take email
addresses off of websites, which is what would be the
case with us, and store them in a massive database.
The other is to take the emails found, run a script to
extract everything after the '--', store THAT part in
the database, and do the auto-generating thing I was
referring to earlier. The second way would be more
effective than the first, but combining both would be
most effective...

I would guess that the best way to cut down on the
spam is to contact your email provider, and tell them
of the problem. They'll usually provide you with
pointers, and directions on setting up filters and
such.

I will now get off of my soapbox,
Sharon Gosselink



--- Listmaster wrote:
> The ntlist software we use doesn't have this
> capability. I can't just
> remove all of the email addresses that easily. I can
> either remove the
> archive completely or it. But then if anyone wants
> to
> read it, they will need to get a password first.
>
> There is nothing else I can do to stop you from
> getting spam. I get
> hundreds per day myself.
>
> Be well,
> Alexander
>
>
>
>
>
> Subject: Amazing secret to picking up women tw
> Author: Robert <robert--atari.org>
> Date: 25-Sep-2003 13:35:07
>
> I believe the reason is that if you look at the
> homepage for this
> mailing
> list (http://www.alternaterealityarchive.com/)
> all e-mail
> addresses of
> everyone is visible in plain (unscrambled) format,
> which is very easy
> for
> e-mail bots (which spammers use) to browse and find.
>
>
> If you type your e-mail address into Google, I
> suspect that it will gain
> a
> few hits, and there is your answer.
>
> My suggestion would be to mail Alexander J Rementer
> (Listmaster--alternaterealityarchive.com) and ask him to
> scramble/remove the e-mails
> from
> the site. If he gets a few polite requests, I'm sure
> he will comply.
>
> /Robert
>