I will reluctantly join with Marion Coady, ironically adding to the junk
mail, to request that people do not complain here on this list about the
spams. For one thing, it does absolutely no good. The spammer does not
even know that we exist. Our complaints will not reach him. He is long
gone to another provider.
 
It is a little bit like the 'good times' virus. There was no such virus!
But the warnings about it, and the contradictory advice that it was just
a hoax, generated so much traffic that the internet and some other
networks were nearly swamped. That, in itself, turned out to be the
'virus'.
 
I, for one, would rather skip over one message and forget it, and not
have to look at another 10-20 complaints also.
 
There are also some practical considerations. I use a BBS to send and
receive internet messages to and from the PARKINSN list. The BBS SYSOPS
are wary of lists. Lists can generate a lot of traffic. My BBS SYSOP
pays for the time he is connected to his internet provider. So a SYSOP
will generally discourage subscriptions to lists that generate more than
about 20 messages a day.
 
Originally I used the fidonet to subscribe to this list. When the SYSOP
of the fidonet/internet gateway detected that I was doing this, he
notified my local BBS SYSOP, and me, that I must stop it. He said that
he could not handle the traffic that lists generated. He also blocked
any messages addressed to list servers so that no one else could
subscribe to any list server. This also made it impossible for me to
unsubscribe. My local BBS SYSOP and the fidonet/internet gateway SYSOP
had to work out between themselves some way to unsubscribe me.
 
Fortunately, at about that same time, my BBS began to provide direct
internet message service.
 
Along the same lines, I would like to advise people to cut their quotes
in any message back to what is really necessary just to maintain the
thread of the subject. Somebody, somewhere, has to pay for the
transmission and storage of wasteful overquoting. The relaynet has
strict rules on the extent of quotes that are allowed in messages for
this reason. It would be good here to follow their rule that the quotes
be no more than 10% of a message.
 
And while I am on this kick of criticizing everybody else, let me pass
out some other advice. Please try to break up your messages into blocks
of about 100 lines. Apparently some mail readers, or BBS systems, or
something, sometimes does this automatically. (I wish that I knew what
does it and where.) Some messages carry a statement that the message is
over 100 lines, and that it is continued in the next message, and then
the next message carries a statement that it is a continuation.
 
The problem here is that my mail reader chops off incoming messages at
150 lines. They just stop in the middle of a phrase, a paragraph, or
whatever. That is about 8 1/2 screens. Then, if it is interesting enough
(it seldom is), I have to call my BBS again to look there at all of the
message. But now, my BBS chops off incoming messages at 200 lines.
So then I have to go (very, very seldom) to the PARKINSN archives if I
really want desparately to read all of a very long message.
 
Well, I do hope that this long message has not gone over 100 lines, and
that it has not bored, or antagonized, all of you.
 
      Cheers!  Keep smiling, no matter what!
 
PS --- If anyone really wants to praise me or flame me for these ideas,
let's do it on our internet addresses. Let's not discuss it any further
on the PARKINSN list.
 
From: [log in to unmask]
 
 * SLMR 2.1a * McLean Virginia USA  Tue 08-29-95 9:59 pm
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