At 06:43 PM 6/21/99 -0500, Michael Hobgood wrote: >Hi All, > This list is a lifesaver for us new Linux users. However, the attached >message appeared on the list. How do we report such spam? ... and ... >Sorry about the last post. Forgot to include the message since I was a >little irrated at getting it in the first place. Here is the spam [quoted message deleted] Good question ... but I don't know of any good answer. This instance was just a silly chain letter, not what people usually call spam -- the e-mail equivalent of postal junk mail, unsolicited **commercial** messages. What I always do in these instances is send a private reply, worded politely, explaining that the posting is not appropriate to a technically oriented Linux discussion group, and asking the poster not to post such messages in the future. Often this works as a substantive request -- newcomers to Linux are sometimes newcomers to e-mail, or at least to majordomo lists, so there's good reason to view these messages as honest mistakes. Of course, if everyone on the list did the same thing (without cc'ing the list - PLEASE), the point would be even clearer and the lesson more memorable -- the sheer number of messages the poster would receive would make him or her realize how much junk mail his or her innocent mistake created. Just a thought. BTW, I don't bother to reply similarly to the real spam -- the psychics and such whose postings get here periodically. In these cases, I fear the consequence of a personal message will be to add my personal e-mail address to more spam target lists. And I DON'T assume they are doing it by accident, so asking them to stop seems pointless. ------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"--- Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------
