 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2003-01-01 17:56
Mark, you have come onto the phorum recently in more than one post to ask that either a valid e-mail address or none at all be posted.
I have found that almost all of my junk mail and virus/worm mail can be traced back to some forums I have participated. Discussion forums seem to me to be the major source for address harvesters.
I like to leave my address so that folks who wish can contact me, and I dislike seeing annonymous posts, especially from folks whose goal is to flame others. In the past, on this board, I have left my e-mail address. For a while I shifted to entering my address with the prefix "nospam-" appended and then also un-clicking the "Email replies..." box below the text entry box. I figure if someone sends me an e-mail to that address it will bounce and if they were serious about sending the note they would look and remove the "nospam-".
I understand your not wanting bogus addresses in there as if the "Email replies..." box is not unchecked your server will have to receive all those "mail undeliverable" notices. Do you have a problem with inclusion of the altered address as I have outlined above? Does the woodwind board have any type of strategy for limiting harvesting the addresses from the board?
I also have a personal peeve that folks don't give their names on board, rather use nom-de-plumes. I feel that you should stand behind your expressed thoughts, also that folks are be more civil in general when theer identity is known.
Finally, one more question, my net security logs it's activities, when I view the log periodically I discover that the source of the most pop-ups which have been stopped is from this site, why is this? I have been unaware of pop-ups on this site (perhaps, because the program is killing these intrusions), what gives here?
Respectfully submitted, Terry Horlick nospam-<font color="blue>thorlick@sbcglobal.net</font>
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Author: Mark Charette, Webmaster
Date: 2003-01-01 18:24
Terry Horlick wrote:
>
>
> I like to leave my address so that folks who wish can contact
> me, and I dislike seeing annonymous posts, especially from
> folks whose goal is to flame others. In the past, on this
> board, I have left my e-mail address. For a while I shifted to
> entering my address with the prefix "nospam-" appended and then
> also un-clicking the "Email replies..." box below the text
> entry box. I figure if someone sends me an e-mail to that
> address it will bounce and if they were serious about sending
> the note they would look and remove the "nospam-".
Terry, there's some technical details I didn't want to bring up, but yes, a completely bogus address will get forwarded to me when someone clicks on the "email replies" and there's a bogus email somewhere in the posts afterward.
> Finally, one more question, my net security logs it's
> activities, when I view the log periodically I discover that
> the source of the most pop-ups which have been stopped is from
> this site, why is this? I have been unaware of pop-ups on this
> site (perhaps, because the program is killing these
> intrusions), what gives here?
There are absolutely no advertising popups on this site, anywhere. Your security logs are either misleading, or your system is blocking something it really shouldn't.
There are a few cookies from here, but that's completely different than popups.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-01 19:57
Terry,
I have always included my real e-mail address in my WWBB posts and have never, to my knowledge received any unwanted mail from such practice, (except for Mark C., often, yelling at me for whatever reason!) but since I've been away for about a year, this may have changed at some point.
If it did, it would almost certainly be from someone having stumbled on the BB as an easy place to come up with e-mail addresses to add to spamming databases already in place.
However, this may also be doubtful, as there are many other, much more effective and productive ways to come up with large numbers of e-mail addresses for that purpose.
I'll tell you what I have always done to save my main (read: serious) e-mail address from becoming contaminated in that respect:
Except for this BB, I have always kept a completely separate e-mail address on Yahoo, which is the one I use for anything I order through the web, or give out to any site which requires you to provide an e-mail address so they can send you "update news" or your "registration number," etc.
The consequence of such practice is to keep your good e-mail address relatively clear of all unwanted message traffic. So far (thank God for small favors) the very small amount of unwanted mail I get at my "good" address, I've been able to take care of by blocking out the unwanted addresses in the system so they can't e-mail me any more.
As far as the Yahoo address, I go through it about once a month and wholesale delete everything I find there, perhaps with the exception of some registration numbers or "customer codes" I might need in the future, and those I move over to a "storage" folder so I can keep the crap e-mail address open for business all the time.
When I checked it yesterday it took me all of 30 seconds to wipe out a month's worth of bad mail.
I, too, have never understood the practice of using noms d'plume, especially when communicating in this forum. I, personally, consider the practice immature and indicative of insecurities, but my sons, who use noms d'plume say it's "fun" to do, because you can say anything you want to, to anybody, and nobody knows who you are.
Relatively speaking, anyway.
I don't necessarily understand that either. Ask anyone here who "knows" me and they'll tell you that having my name visible has never stopped me from issuing forth with whatever I was going to say. Ditto for many others here who use their real names.
This happens to be one of the few safe sites out there where you can actually "be yourself" and people put up with you. (I just got back, haven't even really started posting yet and you should see the warning e-mail Mark C. already sent me!)
At least, I can't see it in a forum like this, where even the utmost controversy is usually well resolved, and/or soon forgotten. This site runs more like a family site, where most of us "know" each other and, in the past, have had some wicked, bickering arguments that transcended the definition of "acquaintance."
We've bickered like siblings, and have been admonished by others who have acted as "family elders." Anyone who doesn't remember any of these instances, I can probably point you to several.
For example, there are people on this BB that I think of as friends, not just acquaintances, although I have never actually met them. And I know this, because I always use the term, "someone I know..." when referring to acquaintances. I rarely use the term "friend," because I've always known that "friends" are really few and far between. But I catch myself referring to some of the BB people as "a friend of mine..." whenever I make reference to to them or pass on some information once gotten from them.
FYI: For those of you who do use a nom d'plume, don't do so when involved in business, employment applications and submmitting inquiries/applications for serious competitions, etc. Serious people, transacting serious business, will often disregard you for doing so, though you may be the top of the heap, otherwise.
But, psychologically speaking (and I'm not a psycologist,) I seem to remember a chapter on human nature in one of my old, college psychology textbooks about how most people "wear a disguise" in their daily lives, because a good disguise has the effect of "freeing us from our inhibitions." It gives us the freedom to say and act in more varied and sundry adventurous ways, and especially, many younger people find it fun to do so (so do many "grown up" people, as well.)
My only consolation is that I remember my father saying things like, "What do these kids think life is all about!." And, "Will you look at that, what's the future going to be like when these kids grow up."
Yet we are still here and doing as well as, and no worse than, at any other given time in history.
Still, that's only my opinion, and many of us know what opinions are like!
Enjoy!
Peter
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-01 20:11
Mark,
How difficult would it be to develop a registry command that would automatically insert someone's e-mail address into the "Blind cc" window, as opposed to the "To:" window?
I used to know someone who had such a command in a server that was publicly used (I was the one who originally suggested it to him,) but don't remember how it was done and this person is no longer available to ask.
The way it was set up was that when you clicked on someone's e-mail link it didn't disclose the address to the sender. Later if the recipient wanted his/her address known to the sender, he/she could provide it.
How about it?
Peter
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Author: Benni
Date: 2003-01-01 20:37
I've never posted my e-mail address for fear of the e-mail address grabbing bots that are out there . . . I don't even post it on my website. Instead I have a form where people can e-mail me. Does anyone know if it is safer to post one's address as a non-link? Do the bots not pick up on it? If so, I would put my address in plain text at the bottom of my messages.
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Author: Fred
Date: 2003-01-02 00:58
Terry mentioned the threat of viruses in his original post. In case some readers still don't believe that viruses pose much of a threat to their computer, let this shock you to your senses. And keep in mind that I am not a computer "guru" as many of you are. What I am doing is NOT sophisticated, and I don't consider myself a "high risk" PC user.
I use a double layer of virus protection on my home PC. (E-mails are screened by my software while they are still at my ISP and another program screens them again at my computer.) I detect about 4-5 e-mail virus attacks per week at the ISP screen; since using that method, no viruses have made it past that screen to my PC. At my PC, I average 5-6 virus signature updates per week. That means my virus software provider feels that some alteration of my existing virus files is necessary that often to keep me protected. And no . . . they don't get paid anything for the updates, so that's not their game.
So . . . if you are not protected, you really need to be. There are people in this world with WAY too much time on their hands. My home PC got one virus before I took this seriously. Way too much trouble to ignore.
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Author: jenna
Date: 2003-01-02 03:20
I double the extra email address, I have the same system. This is the only place I post my real address and I have never *knocks on wood* received any unwanted email.
If you're concerned with your computer's virus status and don't have a program (or an adequate one) you can try http://housecall.antivirus.com which offers a free online scan. I use this in conjunction with my regular program which is continously updated like previously mentioned.
jenna
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2003-01-02 04:08
I prefer not to give my full name (but the "Jim E." is real) simply because my phone # is still listed, and my IP address lists a town rather close to my real address. My wife and I need the listed phone for business reasons, and there are some sick-minded folks in the world. I've had problems with such callers in the past, and they usually call in the middle of the night.
Like others I do not list my email address to attempt to keep down the spam.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-01-02 04:20
Screen names are just fine and dandy here, but I wish people would be more creative.
As I mentioned some time back we'll be moving to a newer version of this BBoard for performance and functionality reasons, and people will have to choose a "screen name" (whether that be your real name or an alias) that is not taken by someone else.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-01-02 04:25
Peter wrote:
> (I
> just got back, haven't even really started posting yet and you
> should see the warning e-mail Mark C. already sent me!)
Peter, you received less than 30 words in two sentences saying you were welcome to post as long as you stayed civil. Nothing more.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-02 07:07
Gee, Mark, I'm just having fun with you. Smile and enjoy!
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Author: Cindy
Date: 2003-01-02 07:15
I think the reason some of us use screen names is so that people whom we know and talk to outside this board don't embarrass us with questions we have asked. By using an SN, we can ask what we see as totally foolish questions or give opinions without fear of people outside the board knowing it is us. Or, that is for me anyways. Lol, sorry, jsut a bit of late night rambling.
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2003-01-02 14:45
Cindy, I've no problem with folks who do that. I really take offense at folks who take a "screen name" and post no address (or an untraceable one like "hotmail.com") so they can rip into folks annonymously.</font>
Terry
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Author: Rob
Date: 2003-01-03 20:57
I have eliminated a great deal of unsolicited e-mail by using a free progarm called Ad-Aware which can be downloaded from a number of providers. Access to the sites offering the software can be had from the software manufacturer's website at www.lavasoft.nu (sorry I can't recall the trick for making web addresses appear as links)
Many people worry about viruses and junkmail, but this program eliminates adware. More insidious than cookies, adware gets downloaded to your machine simply by visiting some websites. It runs constanttly while your computer is connected to the web and reports back to the site that downloaded it, letting them know what other sites you visit, what you buy, where you buy it, etc. This information is used and sold for marketing purposes and is a source of a great deal of junk e-mail. Did I mention that these programs get downloaded to your machine without your knowledge? This used to be done primarily by internet pornographers, but now everyone is getting into the act.
The adware can also significantly compromise the performance of your machine, much more so than cookies. Cookies just take up space. Adware chews up disk space, virtual memory and operational efficiency. Without a detection program such as the one I described, you will never find the true source of this junk. You can search all of the user logs and e-mail sender heads you like but everything will appear as something other than what it is.
I do not work for nor have I ever worked for the manufacturer of this free software. I read about it in the NY Times a few months ago.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-01-03 21:49
Thanks Rob, I looked it up, read about it and it looks very interesting.
I haven't installed it yet, because I always take some time to decide these things, but I do believe I will do so soon.
Thanks again.
Peter
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