Being no fan of tipping points or telling events, I still find the slow but steadily increasing disutility of email interesting:
The holiday season brings festive parties, family gatherings -- and a deluge of spam. Unsolicited messages, or spam, which account for nine out of 10 e-mails, fill up the inboxes of computer users more than ever at this time of year, experts say. "Every year, we see a seasonal increase around the holiday season. It's just worse than it's ever been before this year," said Daniel Druker, executive vice-president of marketing at Postini Inc., a San Carlos, Calif.-based company that provides message security services. Spammers spew out millions of e-mails. Some hawk pharmaceuticals and sexual aids, others offer hot stock tips. The unscrupulous commit identity theft by luring recipients into disclosing personal information, while others commit fraud with the lure of phony offers.Email is one of the few aspects of the information technology hoo-haa that has really worked, that has had its promise pan out according to script. But as many of you have no doubt noticed at work or at home, it is starting to make those sort of creeking noises that the Enterprise made just before Scotty shout "she canna take much more" and "Dammit, Captain - I'm only a Canadian acting in a science fiction episodic TV show with an outrageous Scots accent, not a miracle worker!" OK, he never said that last bit but the point is the same. Thanks to my conversion to g-mail (which I like to call iMail due to its coolness) my spam overflows in a conveniently organized manner that I delete at the merest click. But somewhere somehow I am paying for that huge creeky farm of servers that needs to be in place to handle the bazillions of spams rejected by the system or sad sacks everywhere.
Which goes to some point I have to make that must be lying around here somewhere - oh, yes...here it is. Why is open set communication still around? I mean, why do I not communicate with the people I want to email through a closed set intranet at work or at home? Only with people who have been given permission to talk to me. If we all dealt with closed set communications, spam would die off in a week. If 90% spam does not make this cost-effective, will 95% or 99%? Or is IM essentially already providing this except that it is harder to use in work contexts?
Comments
Gordo - December 23, 2006 12:05 pm
Closed-set filters are limiting, Alan. Otherwise all of Hotmail would use the one that's available to them: "delete any incoming mail from addresses which I have never sent to". I still find email incredibly useful. The spam/ham ratio is only slightly higher than my snail-mail, and I have a filter that labels 97% of the crap for me. I feel for for folks with less useful filtering programs, though.
Paul of Kingston - December 23, 2006 12:39 pm
I came across a statistic recently (reference unknown) that purported that a 1 million email address pitch by any penny stock typically results in between a 5 and 10% rise in share price within 48 hours of the spam. Given that the spam pitch probably costs under $1,000 to produce - that's what I call high value marketing. And - as these sorts of statistics become better known, traders might begin basing penny stock buys on speculation of a an impending spam send. Seems to me that the spam problem is at our end of the pipeline. Technology needs to come to the rescue here.
Alan - December 23, 2006 2:07 pm
I don't mean a filter, I mean a password protected personal space for talking to me. Maybe the only message that gets in without permission is a communication request. But maybe not even that. Just an internet based closed system.
gorthos - December 23, 2006 6:12 pm
You can create closed to the public YahooGroups message boards to kill off spam. otherwise, running filters to prevent you ever seeing a percentage of spam is all you have.
Problem now is image spam, which I have been mumbling around in my brain about creating a filter for. You have to somehow identify the jpg/gif or BMP in the email by its file name else do something about running an algorythm that compared the amount of text to filesize of email, only allowing attached images versus in-body ones and making assumptions.. hrmm. Should I work on this as a project? Naw. there are terrorists to kill on my gamecube.
Gordo - December 23, 2006 10:56 pm
You'll have to technically define a new type of communications then, Alan. You'll also have to get the authors of the internet's email server software to include that definition in their software. Right now, all messages coming in on port 25 and being examined by an email server are <b>email</b>. There's no technical difference between a birthday email from your Mom or notification of a blog posting or a come on for a penny stock. There's simply no facility for a server to prefer one type of communications over another. Other than filters.
Gorthos' idea is about the closest to what you can get to what you're describing now. You'll see subscription requests and authorize or deny them, but that's it outside of email from those you deem worthy.
gorthos - December 24, 2006 7:20 am
Have I ever mentioned that I am self-diagnosed mildly OCD and both my wife and I have all the symptoms of having been mildly ADD as kiddeos? Oh, I guess I forgot.
I have in the back of my mind been writing base "brain language" logic code to define image spam while running, watching shows, eating Xmas dinner at in-laws, DRIVING...argh
Thanks Alan haha!
David - December 24, 2006 9:19 am
You should form a band, OCD/ADD.
Reminds me of my family situation though. Sometimes I think I'm a wigwam, sometimes my wife thinks she's a teepee. Doctor says we're two tents...
Alan - December 24, 2006 9:34 am
No, there are discussion based intranets now. I have one up there called the alNet that is a gift from the server overlords. A system that can have unlimited users but is all based on authorizations. Impossible to spam.
Gordo - December 24, 2006 3:22 pm
Nothing is impossible, Alan. The kiddies WILL get in eventually.
Alan - December 24, 2006 3:54 pm
Five years and not one yet.