Recycle Spam

Netizens are afraid to ask others to stop and those who are asked to stop, no matter how nicely, get offended and feel as though their thoughtfulness is not appreciated. But let’s think about this a moment. How really thoughtful is it to click the forward arrow, then a bunch of e-mail addresses and hit send? Well, your brain had to “think” about those steps but does that make the effort truly “thoughtful.” I don’t think so…

Here are the 5 Rules of Forwarding E-mails that those who are being truly thoughtful follow. If everyone followed them all the problems associated with forwarded e-mails could be avoided. Sticking to these guidelines will assist both those thinking they are thoughtful and those who don’t want to appear otherwise:

 
1. Don’t forward anything without editing out all the forwarding >>>>, e-mail addresses, headers and commentary from all the other forwarders. Don’t make folks look amongst all the gobbly-gook to see what it is you thought was worth forwarding. If you must forward, only forward the actual “guts” or content of the e-mail that you are of the opinion is valuable. 

    

2. If you cannot take the time to write a personal comment at the top of your forwarded e-mail to the person you are sending to - then you shouldn’t forward it at all. 

    

3. Think carefully about if what you are forwarding will be of value (accurate information), appreciated (something the recipient needs) or humorous (do they have the same sense of humor as you do) to the person on the other side. Or do you just think it is worthy? If you cannot think of why the person you are forwarding to would like to receive the e-mail - then don’t forward it. 

    

4. It should go without saying (But I have to say it because folks do so anyway.) that forwarding of chain letters; regardless how noble the topic may seem, virus warnings or anything that says “forward to everyone you know” simply shouldn’t be forwarded because it is plain old B.S. or commentary that many will not appreciate. If you must forward e-mails of this type because you simply can’t help yourself, at the very least check @ Snopes.com to be sure that what you are forwarding isn’t a hoax. 

    

5. If you must forward to more than one person, put your e-mail address in the TO: field and all the others you are sending to in the BCC field to protect their e-mail address from being published to those they do not know. This is a serious privacy issue! Again, be sure to take the time to type a nice little comment about why you are forwarding the e-mail to the recipient(s) at the top of your forward.

The above 5 rules will help qualify if an e-mail is worth forwarding and the right way to do so if it is. If one cannot make these extra efforts, then they really have no excuse to get mad or have hurt feelings when asked to stop. And if asked to stop forwarding, don’t get mad; just realize the person on the other side certainly has the right to make that request.

At the end of the day, if you fear hurting someone’s feelings by asking them to stop forwarding you e-mail, know they probably meant well, were really thinking of you, were trying to make a point - ahhh, just hit delete!

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has
played @ www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular
Software, Programming and Web Design Cheat Sheets @ www.LearnAndThrive.coPublication or use of this article on or off-line without written permission from the author is prohibited. If you would like to use my articles on your Web site or in your publication, contact me for details.

The tide has turned folks. It may not seem like that right now with spam being just as abundant as ever. Spammers are getting desperate though. Their most recent move to use home computers as spam zombies demonstrates this desperation quite clearly. For spammers to want to use low speed cable and DSL connections to send their junk email means one thing - the email servers they’re normally using are being blocked as quickly as they go online.

This is not to say that spam will just disappear. The volume of spam you’re receiving hasn’t noticeably reduced. Not yet but it will. Education is beginning to take effect. People are deleting spam instead of replying to it. Home users are hiding their PCs behind firewalls, antivirus software and spam filters. Companies are implementing enforcable Internet policies which prevent employees from sending spam, jokes or otherwise, during working hours. Even Microsoft have made a committment to fighting spam. Their recent buyout of Giant Software may see spam filtering as a default feature in the next version of Microsoft Windows perhaps?

Let’s just imagine for a second what might happen if spam doesn’t decrease over the next few years.

The geographical hotspots for spammers are Russia, China and the Phillipines. Could a government ,say perhaps the US Government, take a drastic step. Maybe initiate an electronic first strike on the countries which host junk email servers which are used to send out billions of pieces of spam every day? The US already have military Cyber Warfare teams fending off attacks from hackers working for foreign Governments. How hard would it be for them to initiate a cyber assault on spam servers? The US and China actively trade cyber warfare body blows every single day - although this is never discussed on the evening news.

Could data embargos be used to “choke” spammers of their online resources? The Internet itself is compromised of 13 central “pillars” and millions of nodes. A joint venture between the US, UK and the EU could theoretically shut down entire nodes to certain countries - a sort of E-embargo. No data in. No data out. In a world that relies so heavily on data this could bring any offending spam supporting country to its knees in just a few hours.

What’s the likelihood of either scenario ever developing? Anywhere from non-existent to highly probable. We live in a world where absolutes mean nothing as each day passes and we surpass what was previously thought impossible.

The future of spam is a dim one. Public outrage and the drain on bandwidth and Internet resources as a whole has forged a bond of common anger between Joe Soap users and big business worldwide. The message is clear - Spam Has To Go!

What was once a very lucrative business for the spammer may soon be putting up a “Closed Due To Lack of Business” sign. Let’s hope so.

Copyright 2005 Niall Roche

About the Author:
Niall Roche runs Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers and also provides tons of information on the origins of spam and how to fight it. http://www.spam-site.com