Re: ADV: "SUPER LOW [blah blah blah]" / irrelevant Win95

[Nathan Sivin nsivin@xxxxxxxx]

Anyone can send a message to the list. If a large proportion of
subscribers find this unsatisfactory, I can rejigger the list attributes
so that it accepts messages only from subscribers. But, aside from a
less hospitable environment, that makes for a certain amount of
inconvenience, as an experiment with another list taught me.

The point is that, in the teeny digital minds of list processors,
"subscriber" means not a living, thinking, dreaming human being, but an
account. If you subscribe from one account, a message sent from your
other account, or using an alias, will bounce. Quite a few bounce
because people's systems sometimes give them aliases they don't know
about.

There is an individual way to minimize spam. Just about every current
browser has a "filter" facility built in. I have installed filters so
that any message with "!!!" or "cheap" in the subject line gets shunted
to my trash file rather than to my inbox. You could do the same thing
with "save money" in the body of the message, although that might also
deprive you of some good advice about software from a trusted friend.

Cheers,
--
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
(215) 898-7454
nsivin@xxxxxxxx