Letters to the Editor
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How does this cut spam?
So AOL will charge people who want to spam - I'm sorry, "advertise to" - their customers a premium fee and otherwise...?
Otherwise the messages from bulk e-mailers go right through the same spam filters they always have. That's important to note. The messages will go through the SAME Spam prevention filters they always have. If I was a spammer who wanted to send you important messages about penis enlargement, mortgage rates, and incredible short-term stock opportunities, I just have to randomize my message and use botnets to send the spam so AOL has trouble stopping it with its spam filters, the same as any successful spammer does now.
This isn't a spam prevention measure, this is a Premium Marketing campaign! Far from stopping the flow of spam, this scheme ensures its delivery, if the sender has paid protection money to AOL.
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Drawing the line
Simple spam isn't the biggest problem for email providers at the moment; rather, it's (1) phishing and various other forms of fraud and (2) false-positive tagging of non-spam mail as spam. The customer service demands due to these problems are burgeoning as spammers and phishers get more and more sophisticated and numerous, and the pressure for providers to accept at least some financial responsibility for fraud is mounting. If this sort of paid certification were restricted to transactional messages (statements, order confirmations, and other such non-marketing commercial email), it might have a beneficial effect. But using it for marketing will wind up killing any usefulness it might otherwise have had.
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Email Postage A Fantastic Idea
Anyone who objects to email postage is a freeloader. These whining bastards are used to getting YOU, THE USER to pay for THEIR unwanted marketing messages. AOL's plan is fantastic news. I would pay double for such an account. The so-called "free" email system is only free for people whose time is worth nothing. My wasted time weeding through spam costs at least 20 times what I pay every month for my email account ($5.95). A functional email system would be worth 1,000 times the cost of the postage--in terms of its value to the business world. Imagine the value of knowing for sure that your message gets through every time to your customer. Priceless.
The objections to email postage reminds me of the hue and cry from the telemarketers when the do-not-call list was proposed. They painted horrific pictures of millions of out-of-work telemarketers. What we got was much quieter phones, and the ability to eat dinner in peace. I haven't heard a peep from the out-of-work telemarketers. Presumably they found more creative jobs and now have better lives as well. There was no blip in the unemployment rate. The only losers were the assholes who ran the telemarketing sweatshops.
Likewise, we should be focusing on the spammers who have hijacked the free email system. It's tempting to think of them as evil, but they are just exploiting a loophole, and we've allowed it. They are expertly using a collectively owned infrastructure against those who pay for it.
It's time we, the ratepayers, revolted. Just as a telemarketer uses my paid phone line against me, so every spammer uses my paid email account against me, AOL or otherwise. Email postage would make it easier to know when someone cares enough about me to spend 1/4 cent to certify their message. What they would be buying with their postage is my respect.
Ironically, the activist organizations in the article are missing the point. Because, like the telemarketers and the spammers, they've been getting a free ride. Yes, their messages have social value. But that doesn't make it any more ethical that they are using other people's money to pay for their delivery. My parents ran a non-profit organization when I was growing up. Postage was always a huge issue, even at bulk rates. But they paid it, and their organization grew. If non-profits want to take their chances with the spam-filters, they can still get in line for "free" email with everyone else.
If I was running a non-profit now, I'd look at this as a bargain and an opportunity. It's a lot cheaper than conventional mail. Email postage would force non-profits to do their homework, and hit their demographic in a more focused way. It would also force a shift to "permission-based" marketing--which is where it's all headed anyway.
A thought experiment: Imagine what it would be like if postal mail were free for senders. None of us would be able to get in our front doors, we'd need trucks to haul away the junk mail, and there wouldn't be a forest left standing on the planet.
The only way to solve the spam problem is to shift the costs of email from the receiver to the sender--just like with regular postage.
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"The Truth about Certified Mail and Yahoo! Mail"
http://antispam.yahoo.com/faqs#a15
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400 million CDs annually
And now they are going to save us from spam. Ha ha. Makes you want to cry.
By the way, rather poor article. The only method of combating spam mentioned was white/black lists? Poor show. They are among the worst and least reliable methods (at least when used on their own). This being the depth of research on this story, it's no wonder the author is rooting for AOL.
And I'm afraid BlackSun's outburst is so short sighted (i try to stop myself from saying ignorant) I almost suspect him (or her, but rather not likely a her) of being a Republican. Yes, sorry BlackSun, that bad!
The problem is indeed a complicated one. Very difficult. There will be no simple solution mandated by those who like to push people around. The net is too big even for AOL. The best they can do is return to being the dwindling gated community they had already become long ago. While the giant ISPs old enormous power, they have been thus far pretty much zero help in solving the actual problems of the internet. This latest move is just another attempt at a proprietary solution which profoundly misunderstands the nature of the internet, and attempts to keep all of the power and control with themselves. What do you expect from a corporation?
I know it's going to sound trite, and perhaps even cliche: but if Microsoft wanted to they could have done a lot to obliterate spam. What sort of spam protection is in outlook, the world's operating system's monopoly's email client? I mean, just by giving even a little power to the users, it might accomplish amazing things. Even the extremely simple Bayesian-style filter integrated into Mozilla's mail client (aka Netscape, and now Firefox's companion, Thunderbird) is extremely effective with minimal effort from a user. Just click the "junk" button when you see spam; the filter learns to identify spam extremely quickly, and with pretty amazing accuracy. There are even more effective bayesian style systems out there (such as dSpam). Of course I understand that auto-classifying spam is only one level, and that there are many more levels to the spam problem. But really most users simply don't want to see the stuff and don't care if it's filtered by their mail client, or their ISP. And if a significant number of users never saw the stuff, there'd be less moments of weakness that apparently fill the pockets of penis enlargement people with cash (it's a wonder they have any more room on those pockets).
Yes, I also know I am dreaming to think that people will learn to take care of themselves on the internet, in an era where a an absolutely rat infested (not bugs, not viruses, not worms... RATS) insecure operating system somehow maintains its effortless monopoly. And most people aren't even aware there is any alternative.
All right then, lets let AOL, who has been such a good netizen all these years, with such a highly respected client base, take over and save us. Hey, and the extra bright side to this will be that BlackSun and Farhad will be protected from the potential of getting any email from me! Woo! Aren't you guys happy?
By the way, a trivial addendum: I run a small ISP which has been in operation for the last 10+ years... we've seen it all... and these giant corporate ISPs have been nothing, nothing, nothing but pain, in so many ways, for us who have been there from the beginning, and once loved the internet (and still try to)... this is just another bit of spittle from their moronic lips we must endure dripping down into our greasy hair.
Have a nice email-free day.