Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

Not sure how old this is, but I just discovered that Earthlink's
SpamBlocker is interactive in its effort to overcome spam.  They're
utilizing the puzzle concept.  If your message to an Earthlink customer is
the first you've ever sent, then the server sends an automated response
with a link.  The link goes to a form page with some information already
completed.  The puzzle is the last item.

It's only mildly annoying, but I just thought of a potential glitch.  What
if I had to send a legitimate mass mailing and many of the addresses were
at Earthlink?  Now I'm stuck having to respond to a sizeable number of
these automated responses.  Or what if so-n-so AT earthlink.net signs onto a
listserv for the first time and the listserv sends an automated response,
to which it gets an automated response to which the listserv will never
respond, and then the person in question becomes irritated that he can't
seem to get signed up on the listserv.

Now, one would hope that all of these Earthlink people in question would
know to add such-n-whichever email address to their white list in order to
avoid such complications for whomever is attempting to contact them. 
However, people are lazy and forgetful and stupid, so...

So we're back to pondering what is the best solution to spam.

-Alan

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