SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: early version of the SIGIA-
Re: SIGIA-L: early version of the SIGIA-L archive now available
From: Jeff Lash (jeff_at_jefflash.com)
Date: Wed Dec 19 2001 - 08:48:09 EST
I'm only one list member, and my opinions may not reflect the rest of the
group, but...
- Public archives
When I signed up for SIGIA a while ago it was very clear that there were
public archives which, at the time, worked. They stopped working, and a
temporary archive opened up. There were lots of discussions about this old
archive on the list, and there were lots of discussions about this most
recent archive on this list in the past few weeks. It seems very clear to me
that the list always was "public" and the archives always were "public" and
therefore we're not converting it in any way.
If you're concerned about something you say being available to the public,
then don't write it. Even if this was a "private" list, what's stopping me
from posting archived messages to my own website? Even though a list's
archives may not be publicly available, there's nothing that can stop a
"rogue" member from taking their SIGIA email folder to the web. I could
anonymously start up ChristinaWodtkeIsAnIdiot.com and post her messages
there interlaced with my comments, or Don'tHireZiyaOz.com and post emails
and my opinions there as well.
The idea that email is private is preposterous; always assume that your
email can (and possibly will) be forwarded to anyone and everyone. If you
don't want to take the chance of someone other than the intended
recipient(s) reading it, then you probably shouldn't be writing it in an
email.
- Email address harvesting
I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I really don't care. Honestly. Make
the archives publicly available and keep email addresses in there. I hate
spam, I hate it a whole lot, but spam harvesters (the idiots that they are)
are smart, and anything we can come up with they'll probably figure out.
I've got my email address publicly available on a lot of different places
and I don't get too much spam (and what I do get I send on to
http://spamcop.net/ -- it takes a few minutes every other day but it's worth
having friends, acquaintances and potential clients easily get in touch with
me). I don't like the idea of password-protecting the archives because (a)
what's to stop me from passing the password around and (b) the great thing
about archives (like CHI-WEB) is being able to link to them and pass on
conversations and discussions to non-members.
While I wish they'd pass a law concerning spam, I doubt that's a top
priority in today's national climate, and even if they did I'm sure it'd
take a while to iron out all the loopholes and have it be in effect. And, as
much as I hate spam, I hate even more the idea of someone calling me at my
house, knowing where I live, knowing what kind of credit cards or long
distance service I have. If my email address is lumped in with 3 million
others who get a generic message about getting a fake college degree online,
well, I have better things to worry about.
.jeff.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2
: Sun Nov 23 2003 - 22:54:56 EST
|
