OT Warning to new posters: Change your posting name frequently to confuse net-stalkers.

Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
....

Like dogs they also don't chase people who don't play with them and
don't run away. That's why I use my real name and make it easy to
find out my details. Spam filters deal with the noise. So I don't
have the bother of keeping my contacts up to date with my address. A
simple life. This whole name changing thing is hysteria.

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

And in my experience, people who do contact me about Usenet postings
are mostly polite. Even the less-polite messages are generally from
people trying to tell me how strongly they disagree with me
technically - they don't get personally abusive.

There was a period, when spam was ramping up in volume and spam
filters were just starting to be used, that I wished my email
address wasn't as public as it is. But now spam is only a minor
annoyance.

The real danger is the bots running on Usenet looking for anything that
looks like a valid E-mail address. Dangers run the gamut from spam to
spyware to identity theft.

--
HP, aka Jerry

"This is the way he wants it ... well, he gets it"
"What we got here is failure to communicate"
"You’re gonna get your mind right"
- The Cap'n to Lucas Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke"

In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems HEMI-Powered wrote:
Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
...

Like dogs they also don't chase people who don't play with them and
don't run away. That's why I use my real name and make it easy to
find out my details. Spam filters deal with the noise. So I don't
have the bother of keeping my contacts up to date with my address. A
simple life. This whole name changing thing is hysteria.

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

And in my experience, people who do contact me about Usenet postings
are mostly polite. Even the less-polite messages are generally from
people trying to tell me how strongly they disagree with me
technically - they don't get personally abusive.

There was a period, when spam was ramping up in volume and spam
filters were just starting to be used, that I wished my email
address wasn't as public as it is. But now spam is only a minor
annoyance.

The real danger is the bots running on Usenet looking for anything that
looks like a valid E-mail address. Dangers run the gamut from spam to
spyware to identity theft.

With good modern spam filers spam is no longer the problem it once was
for individuals. As for spyware via email, if you avoid using any of
Micros**t's half-baked email extensions and Micros**t software to
handle your email there's no danger of that. Finally with respect to
identity theft, a well established and widely used on-line identity is
the least likely to be stolen.

As for the famous bots harvesting addresses from newsgroups, if you
run a separate valid address used only for newsgroups it's easy to
tell that those bots have ceased to be the terrible danger they're
reputed to be by computer salesdroids, if indeed they ever were.

--
Chris Malcolm

John Navas wrote:
On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:20:18 +0000 (UTC), (Dave
Martindale) wrote in :

Chris Malcolm writes:

Like dogs they also don't chase people who don't play with them and
don't run away. That's why I use my real name and make it easy to find
out my details. Spam filters deal with the noise. So I don't have the
bother of keeping my contacts up to date with my address. A simple
life. This whole name changing thing is hysteria.
That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real name
since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings is valid
and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several times as
much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets discarded before it
reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does* try to contact me about
something I've written, and having a valid email address in postings
makes that easy.

Likewise -- I've been using a real and unique email address for Usenet
from the very beginning, and based on periodic analysis of my incoming
spam, including that caught by automatic spam filtering, my Usenet email
address does not get substantially more spam by percentage than my
non-Usenet email addresses. The conventional wisdom about the
harvesting of email addresses for spam from Usenet hasn't proved to be a
real issue.

Er, ah, well, Me, Too! I am amused by the perpetuation of a very old
saw that the bots will get you if you don't break up your real E-mail
address in six different ways. Besides which, I've had some very nice
folks contact me with opportunities for receiving a huge amount of cash
just because I'm trustworthy and have a nice E-mail address.....

--
John McWilliams

Chris Malcolm wrote:

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true

The real problem is people even engaging in these discussions and in
replying to the troll(s).

Ignore these threads and ignore trolls and there will be no need to
discuss what to do about them.

John Navas wrote:
On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:20:18 +0000 (UTC), (Dave
Martindale) wrote in :

Chris Malcolm writes:

Like dogs they also don't chase people who don't play with them and
don't run away. That's why I use my real name and make it easy to find
out my details. Spam filters deal with the noise. So I don't have the
bother of keeping my contacts up to date with my address. A simple
life. This whole name changing thing is hysteria.
That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real name
since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings is valid
and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several times as
much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets discarded before it
reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does* try to contact me about
something I've written, and having a valid email address in postings
makes that easy.

Likewise -- I've been using a real and unique email address for Usenet
from the very beginning, and based on periodic analysis of my incoming
spam, including that caught by automatic spam filtering, my Usenet email
address does not get substantially more spam by percentage than my
non-Usenet email addresses. The conventional wisdom about the
harvesting of email addresses for spam from Usenet hasn't proved to be a
real issue.

Very clearly, neither of you were victims of the "shootin wars" that
went on for nearly a year in RPE35mm.

On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:25:45 -0600, "HEMI-Powered" wrote
in :

Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
...

Like dogs they also don't chase people who don't play with them and
don't run away. That's why I use my real name and make it easy to
find out my details. Spam filters deal with the noise. So I don't
have the bother of keeping my contacts up to date with my address. A
simple life. This whole name changing thing is hysteria.

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

I'd undoubtedly see some bounces, and haven't.

And in my experience, people who do contact me about Usenet postings
are mostly polite. Even the less-polite messages are generally from
people trying to tell me how strongly they disagree with me
technically - they don't get personally abusive.

There was a period, when spam was ramping up in volume and spam
filters were just starting to be used, that I wished my email
address wasn't as public as it is. But now spam is only a minor
annoyance.

The real danger is the bots running on Usenet looking for anything that
looks like a valid E-mail address. Dangers run the gamut from spam to
spyware to identity theft.

With all due respect, I don't think that's true -- there are much easier
and more effective ways for them to get good email addresses, including
compromised personal computers.
--
Best regards,
John
[Please Note: Ads belong (only) in rec.photo.marketplace.digital]

Jurgen wrote:

Very clearly, neither of you were victims of the "shootin wars" that
went on for nearly a year in RPE35mm.

Hmm. One doesn't hear that term used often:
http://groups.google.com.au/group/re...2aa3a5c49778b9

So who were you in those wars, "Jurgen"? (O:

"HEMI-Powered" writes:
Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
...

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

That certainly happens. I get bounced email purporting to come from me
that I didn't send. But so what? Faking the From address to appear to
come from me is only of value when sending the message to someone who
will treat that message somehow differently because of it - either
getting the message through a whitelist filter, or getting the recipient
to open it because they recognize my name. But none of these messages
looks remotely like anything I would ever send, so even on the off
chance that it's randomly sent to someone who knows who I am, I don't
expect them to believe it came from me.

Dave

Dave Martindale wrote:
"HEMI-Powered" writes:
Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
...

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

That certainly happens. I get bounced email purporting to come from me
that I didn't send. But so what? Faking the From address to appear to
come from me is only of value when sending the message to someone who
will treat that message somehow differently because of it - either
getting the message through a whitelist filter, or getting the recipient
to open it because they recognize my name. But none of these messages
looks remotely like anything I would ever send, so even on the off
chance that it's randomly sent to someone who knows who I am, I don't
expect them to believe it came from me.

Dave

Obviously Dave, you are not in business and have never had you business
attacked by someone sending your client's e-mails looking like they came
from you and causing mayhem with them. White list and black list filter
aren't going to arrest the damage done.

What too, of the "shootin wars when a network savey individual (who even
toady still posts here using a different name) began his attacks on Lisa
Horton (the person credited with starting shootin)? This fool drove a
substantial number of contributors off Usenet altogether and was one of
the reasons Alan and a few others established this group.

Alan ought to remember that time, he was a target himself. Subsequent
"name changers" by Professional photographers of which there are 6 or so
I can finger still posting to these groups, have managed recover from
the damage done to their business by this fool and his followers.

Even today there are trolls who (wrongly) believe I am an Aussie Pro
they lie in wait to attack. Name changing is a valuable tool for some
people and one that AOL recommend to newsgroup participants.

Jurgen wrote:
Dave Martindale wrote:
"HEMI-Powered" writes:
Dave Martindale added these comments in the current discussion du jour
...

That's my impression to. I've been posting on Usenet under my real
name since about 1980, and the email address in my current postings
is valid and has been the same for about 14 years. I do get several
times as much spam as real mail, but virtually all of it gets
discarded before it reaches my mailbox. Occasionally someone *does*
try to contact me about something I've written, and having a valid
email address in postings makes that easy.

Yes, but how do you know that your E-mail hasn't been stolen by a true
bad guy that is using it OTHER than to send YOU messages?

That certainly happens. I get bounced email purporting to come from me
that I didn't send. But so what? Faking the From address to appear to
come from me is only of value when sending the message to someone who
will treat that message somehow differently because of it - either
getting the message through a whitelist filter, or getting the recipient
to open it because they recognize my name. But none of these messages
looks remotely like anything I would ever send, so even on the off
chance that it's randomly sent to someone who knows who I am, I don't
expect them to believe it came from me.

Dave

Obviously Dave, you are not in business and have never had you business
attacked by someone sending your client's e-mails looking like they came
from you and causing mayhem with them. White list and black list filter
aren't going to arrest the damage done.

What too, of the "shootin wars when a network savey individual (who even
toady still posts here using a different name) began his attacks on Lisa
Horton (the person credited with starting shootin)? This fool drove a
substantial number of contributors off Usenet altogether and was one of
the reasons Alan and a few others established this group.

It's very easy to avoid getting embroiled in shooting wars. All you
have to do is not to shoot :-)

Alan ought to remember that time, he was a target himself. Subsequent
"name changers" by Professional photographers of which there are 6 or so
I can finger still posting to these groups, have managed recover from
the damage done to their business by this fool and his followers.

Even today there are trolls who (wrongly) believe I am an Aussie Pro
they lie in wait to attack. Name changing is a valuable tool for some
people and one that AOL recommend to newsgroup participants.

Would that be the same AOL who advised themselves to dump their
newsgroup handling because they were scared of being held legally
responsible for what they allowed some of their newsgroups users to
get up to?

I've always regarded AOL's advice to be very well worth while not
following :-)

--
Chris Malcolm