Re: Apologies for the irony (was Re: Principles of Spam-abatement)

[Paul Vixie <vixie at vix.com>]

nsb at guppylake.com (Nathaniel Borenstein) writes:

> Paul:  I don't know whether or not you want me to be able to send you  
> personal mail -- I'd hope so, but if not please imagine for a moment  
> that you do.

I do, I do, I really do.  Really.  (I only wish that it were possible.)

> Further imagine that you *aren't* serving as your own ISP (i.e. you're
> not technical, you're not using the "real" Internet, you can't afford an
> expensive connection, whatever.)  I call you on the phone or fax you the
> bounce message below and ask you how I can get email to you.  What do you
> do?  It's a serious question, and it's not primarily about property
> rights, it's about our right to choose to communicate with each other.
> -- Nathaniel

I'd tell you what I tell other AT&T Worldnet users -- switch ISP's, find
someone who has an abuse desk and who rigorously defends their digital
reputation.  Or if necessary, put your e-mail at a more distant location
and use IMAP and tunnels to "appear to come from" a more reputable
location.

> PS -- Are you really rejecting all mail from comcast.net?  Just  
> curious, that's a lot of people.

I think of them as AT&T Worldnet, who once upon a time had a pleasant and
effective abuse desk, and who worked as diligently to keep spam from getting
out as they did to keep it from coming in.  I was very sad when that changed.