Re: [Asrg] HTML-burdened E-mail

[gep2@terabites.com]

>> WHOSE SUPPOSED RIGHTS ARE YOU TRYING TO PROTECT HERE, ANYHOW?

> The users, as stated in the charter (emphasis added):

> "The work of the ASRG will also include investigating techniques to 
>evaluate the usefulness and cost of proposed solutions. Usefulness is 
>described by the effectiveness, accuracy, and incentive structure of the 
>system. The cost of the system refers to the burden imposed on USERS and 
>operators of the communications system. "

>>I think it makes sense to put priority rights to those who are paying the
>>bills... and that's the recipients.  They should have the power to turn 
>>off such
>>bulky and unwanted crap, ESPECIALLY given the fact that they typically are
>>trying to work around limited-size ISP-provided inboxes and to keep them from
>>overflowing and bouncing the mail they DO want to receive.

> Your underlying assumption is that spam will persist being HTML encoded. 

No.  I think that INITIALLY, spam is going to stay HTML-burdened (and a result, 
nearly all of it would be trashed if sent to permission-list-protected 
recipients).  After some time, spammers will realize that HTML-burdening their 
spam is the 'kiss of death' and they'll stop doing that.

> I do not believe that it will take spammers too long to switch to plain ASCII. 

Agreed.  And once they do that:

   1)  Their spam will be less effective;

   2)  their spam will be more easily dealt with by content filters;

   3)  their spam will be something like a QUARTER or less of the volume it is 
today, reducing both bandwidth and storage costs all along the delivery route.

Sounds like a win-win deal to me.


Gordon Peterson                  http://personal.terabites.com/
1977-2002  Twenty-fifth anniversary year of Local Area Networking!
Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment!  Join at http://www.cauce.org/
12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they "represent".
12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.



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