E-mail filtering, in an effort to stop spam, has become insidious. Used
properly -- especially by individual users -- it can be quite helpful. Used
sloppily to filter for semi-arbitrary spamlike content (as it often is by
server administrators and others), it risks killing e-mail as a useful form
of communication.
I'd highly recommend the following articles and discussion at the TidBITS
mailing list site, which cover the issue and its hazards in clear and useful
detail:
Killing the Killer App
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06866
Content Filtering Exposed
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06869
Various discussion threads:
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1679
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1680
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1681
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1683
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1684
Here's a pertinent excerpt:
> * Email is increasingly being filtered for its content;
>
> * That filtering is often being done without the knowledge or
> consent of affected users;
>
> * Over time, inaccurate filtering will substantially reduce
> the general utility of email.
>
> In short, we're starting to see signs that email, often hailed
> as the Internet's "killer app," is in danger of becoming an
> unreliable, arbitrarily censored medium - and there's very little
> we can do about it.
Derek K. Miller, Vancouver, BC, Canada dkmiller@pobox.com
http://www.penmachine.com ["Derek K. Miller" via risks-digest Volume 22, Issue 16]
19:48
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G!
