mailgeoff.html

**e-mail to Geoff Wyvill**
When you send me e-mail for the first time, make the subject line "Honestly for Geoff". Otherwise, my SPAM filter will catch the mail and it will not be delivered. Instead, you will get a reply telling you how to reach me. geoff@cs.otago.ac.nz I'm really sorry to have to do this. I have had an 'open door' policy as a teacher for more than 30 years and since 1986 when we first got e-mail in New Zealand, I have extended this availability to the worldwide community of students and anyone else who wants to ask questions or argue issues. Unfortunately, with the commercialization of the Web, the amount of junk mail (SPAM) that comes to my openly published e-mail address has increased to the point where I'm losing hours every week just deleting it. So I have devised my own SPAM protection system. I receive mail only from known addresses. New, genuine correspondents must identify themselves with the special subject line. Of course the SPAM merchants will eventually catch up with this strategy. They have already adopted the practice of mis-spelling key words to get past filters. Why, I hear you cry, would anyone want to send unsolicited advertising to someone who has deliberately set up a filter to stop it? The answer is that e-mail advertising is essentially free. The scumbags (businessmen) can send 1,000,000 extra mails for no extra cost so even if the probability of getting an answer is very small, it still increases business. In New Zealand, we actually pay for our net traffic. SPAM sent to my home costs me about one cent for each message. That is about $3 per week at the present rate and that has at least doubled in the past six months. If there are any smart lawyers out there in the US, this could be a winner if you can find anyone to sue who has any money.

I'm really sorry to have to do this. I have had an 'open door' policy as a teacher for more than 30 years and since 1986 when we first got e-mail in New Zealand, I have extended this availability to the worldwide community of students and anyone else who wants to ask questions or argue issues.

Unfortunately, with the commercialization of the Web, the amount of junk mail (SPAM) that comes to my openly published e-mail address has increased to the point where I'm losing hours every week just deleting it. So I have devised my own SPAM protection system. I receive mail only from known addresses. New, genuine correspondents must identify themselves with the special subject line.

Of course the SPAM merchants will eventually catch up with this strategy. They have already adopted the practice of mis-spelling key words to get past filters. Why, I hear you cry, would anyone want to send unsolicited advertising to someone who has deliberately set up a filter to stop it? The answer is that e-mail advertising is essentially free. The scumbags (businessmen) can send 1,000,000 extra mails for no extra cost so even if the probability of getting an answer is very small, it still increases business.

In New Zealand, we actually pay for our net traffic. SPAM sent to my home costs me about one cent for each message. That is about $3 per week at the present rate and that has at least doubled in the past six months. If there are any smart lawyers out there in the US, this could be a winner if you can find anyone to sue who has any money.