Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 24 January 2003
Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: Dave
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Onelist Right of Reply

Ah.  I see.  If you say on the e-mail bulk mailed to
people "carefully selected by our spider" that
"this message is NOT SPAM" then therefore, magically, it's
not spam.

I'll be sure to make sure I use that phrase when I try out
this CD of email addresses I just brought ;-)




From: Brodie Davis
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Swiftnet

quote:
"Spamming is NOT tolerated by SwiftNet or Onthelist and we
are dismayed that some users would perceive it to be spam,
which it is not, as stated at the bottom of the mailouts
that this mail is clearly NOT SPAM."

Oh dear.. that clearly makes it not spam then.  I guess I
can put a sticker on my car that says "this is not a car"
and then it isn't one.

If it smells like SPAM, looks like SPAM, tastes like SPAM,
then it is SPAM,  doesn't matter if the can says "random
meat product".

The main thing that pisses me off about spam these days..
is that almost every single one of them is HTML,  luckly I
still use pine so get to choose the clear text part of the
message but your standard 80 line message (large spam here)
has about 80kb of html crap sitting in it as well.  and in
these days of jetstream where you pay per mb.  that costs
around 20c for 12 messages.  (not much you say, until you
start to receive 20-30 a day, every day of the week all
year round.  thats around $1500 a year, just for the
pleasure of receiving spam).

Maybe Mr Swains (rather close to swine in spelling don't
you think) email address needs to get on a few of
the "premium" mailing lists and he might change his mind.

Regards,

Brodie

P.S I am not suggesting that someone should put his address
in those lists though.. but it could be quite ironic :)




From: Peter
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: No spam law

The government has no problem legislating anything up to and including the
most absurd insignificance. So one has to ask: "Why are governments around
the world so reluctant to take a stand against spam?".  My suggestion is
that it is generally hoped the Internet will melt down under its own spam,
thereby removing the threat the Internet poses to Government control
world-wide.  It's a fanciful hope, but the Government's best bet for now




From: Mike
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Spam and the Crimes Amendment Bill

In my submission to the Crimes Amendment Bill on computer
crimes, I suggested a new crime "Unsolicited advertising to
a personal communication device".

This would have covered things like fax, pager, cellphone,
email.

The response was that this was not an activity of a
criminal nature.  There was no suggestion of which other
act it could come under.

Maybe attitudes will change over time.

BTW There is a simple way to solve spam e-mail in New
Zealand.  You put a S.E.E. Mail box (www.see.govt.nz) at
each ISP, then e-mail FROM addresses cannot be spoofed.
You then filter all unauthenticated messages.




From: Matthew Hill
For : Right Of Reply (for publication)
Subj: Onthelist

Uses an "intelligent" spider, doesn't that amount to an
email harvester bot.  What was the intelligent criteria
used, most likely it just search for @ and .co.nz




From: D Marshall
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Re: www.onthelist.co.nz

I read with amusement Farser Marrs right of reply regarding
the article you wrote on onthelist.co.nz, especially the
part "Our 'One Off  Invitation' mailouts occurred on Monday 21st
January is simply not spam..."

I seem to recall getting quite a few SPAM emails from others
sources with very similar wording. Here are  a few examples...

"This is not SPAM. You have Opted-In for information..."

"This is not spam, just some good information."

"This is not Spam. We have made business contact in the past..."

"This is not SPAM. If you do not wish to receive further
mailings, please click below"

Putting the words "This is not a SPAM" on the bottom of an
email, does not make an unsolicited email magically ok.
Would writing "This is not a Car" across the back of your
car make it not a car?

Any intelligent person would see if for was it was.

It seems I've also been selected by many other web spiders
to receive "good information", "exciting business
opportunities", and "More Traffic For Your Web Site!" but I
still consider those spam no matter how "carefully
sellected" my email addres may have been.

Simply put if I didn't personally sign up for a email
mailout (and I'm all for double opt-in here), then what I
receive is SPAM regardless of what the sender thinks.

It may not be illegal yet, but for a legitimate business it
isn't very smart.




From: Tim
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: onethelist

I notice with much amusement, putting a ' in your search
query causes onthelists search engine to fail.

----
Search Results - Basic Search
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 1:
Incorrect syntax near ' and fldUpdated = '.

/search.asp, line 154
----

If that's not the most amateur thing I've seen I don't know
what is.  I was tempted to try some SQL syntax in there,
but that might be considered hacking...




From: Mike Dawson
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Off the Wall

After my recent posting in your column regarding
onthelist.co.nz, I was contacted by Johan Louw of Swiftnet,
the people behind the search engine, and informed that only
unethical companies would rate their competition lowly, and
that, “The real facts are that we should not become one of
them.”

Such faith in human nature!

At his invitation, I have responded to Mr Louw’s email, and
suggested that if he thinks that, “It's not so good to read
bad things about yourself from other websites”, he should
refrain from sending what recipients perceive as spam.
Further, I suggested a more appropriate method of
responding to my comments was by way of your column.

To be fair, On the List have reset their rankings and
allowed previously locked entries to be rated. However, the
system flaws remain in place. I have an idea that would
allow for rankings that would not be open to abuse, but as
I would charge a fee for this service I will refrain from
contacting On the List, lest my correspondence be deemed
spam, ;-).

I’ve enjoyed reading your column, and the many postings on
the subject of spam. Short of employing the deliciously
fiendish method that you mentioned in your column about a
year ago, perhaps our only option is to give spammers a
public bollocking, which we have done.




From: Alfie
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: OnTheList

Despite their denials, the Swiftnet/OnTheList emails are
undoubtably spam. Some of their claims appear to be a
little suspect as well. For example:

  "Congratulations, your company, (insert name) has been
   approved to be placed on the most prestigous New Zealand
   Business Directory 'On The List'."

Most prestigous? What sort of traffic are they getting?
Mainly bankers and sharebrokers?

  "To remain 'Onthelist' only costs as little as $10 per
   month, no catches."

Wow! Paid placements. That's REALLY prestigous!

  "There is NO 'Remove' feature due to the fact that you
   are NOT on a SPAM LIST."

But haven't I just been spammed? Come on now. I think
<johan@johanlouw.com> needs a pair of reality glasses.

The time is right for some decent anti-spam legislation.
What's wrong with NZ leading the world in stamping out this
obnoxious waste of bandwidth.




From: Eric
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Spam payment

People seem to think that by adding, "This is not
SPAM", "You have been carefully selected" etc and so on,
make it all above board to waste my time, resources and
effort. Can I send them a bill for my time etc?  I would
like to try but the reality is that tracking down the
responsible parties can be quite difficult and I haven’t
pursued this yet (still waiting for New Zealand based Spam).

At least with telemarketers I can use up 15+ minutes of
their time before asking to be removed from their contact
lists.




From: Barry
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: onthelist

Look in their Internet section of the directory -
http://www.onthelist.co.nz/search.asp?mode=dir&category=Internet
and compare the rankings of "Onthelist Business Directory" and
"Aardvark". What else needs to be said?
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