Email stamps....

[Neil]

Well well well. Heres a CNN article that says that bill gates wants to add a postage stamp (about a penny per email) to Emails to prevent spammers from sending millions of spam email. Another option stated in the article is a simple math puzzle that you would have to complete before sending the email. This would (at least in theory) be another way to do it that would make it harder for spammers.

I thought this would make an interesting topic to discuss.

So how many Emails do you think you send, say, every week.

And how many do you think you would send if you had to pay a penny per?

And how many do you think you would send if you had to do a math problem for every email? (i can only have one topic in the actual poll, so I will just have the others in the post)

Personnaly I would send a whole lot fewer emails and a whole lot more PMs if there was a penney per email, but if it was a math problem (it says on the website it would take about 10 seconds to complete) for every email, I would proabably send the same amount, or maybe a little fewer, if I could use PMs to do the same thing.

What do you think of all this?

 

[jflis]

This idea has come up from time to time, but would never happen.

See, here in the US, the Post Office owns "mail" We have other shippers, but *only* the post office deals with "mail". They (and the other shippers) have contracts with the "mail" carriers on other countries.

With few exceptions (and *none* that I am aware of) every country has ONE entity who is responsible for "mail"

Not so with email. No one owns "email". No one owes the internet nor the web.

Who do you pay? I certianly ain't giving Gates any more money!

I may be living in NH but use a mail server in ontario. I want to send an email to my brother who lives in NY but uses an email server in Mexico. How/why do I pay anyone in the US when the mail went from canada to mexico??

And *that's* the easy part...

Frankly, if you want to help curb SPAM, they need to institute the No Call List for email. And, frankly, it should be an Opt-In and not an Opt-Out program (though that could never happen)

We have our mail box, email, FAX, phone, TV and news paper box. It is SO unreasonable to ask that just ONE of these be free from all marketing and political use??? (as you can see, this is a real pet peeve of mine)

Create an anti-email list (i'd even pay for the service to get my emails listed). If your name is on this list, you can't receive any email that solicits **any**thing, be it opinions, money, votes, whatever.

1st offense, small cash fine and a warning
2nd offense, large enough cash fine to bankrupt the business
3rd offense, prohibition from all computer technology
4th, life.

 

[rstaff3]

It seems to me that if someone starts charging/taxing any element of our on-line lives that it will snowball. Next they'd tax IM, connect time, whatever.

 

[wwattles]

These two links provide the truth about this particular urban legend...

https://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/bill602p.asp

https://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/unsub.asp

WW

 

[Neil]

Life in prison... thats a little harsh. Howbout 10 years.... LOL.....

I agree, a no call (or email) list would be better..... Be nice if they had a "no TV add" list or at least a "no attack ad" or "No campaign ad" list. Though those last two tend to be the same thing...:kill:

I also agree that it would be hard to know who to pay.... I dont want to give Gates any more money, either! His fortune is the only green that will last for the 7th generation at the rate were goin...

Do you get a lot more junk mail when you own a buisness?

I have gotten Email ads to eliminate my credit card debt, transfer 12 million dollars into my account, and preside over some quacks father's funeral. :kill: Talk about strange....

 

[WiK]

We already pay enough for internet access. Why should we PAY to send emails?!? I thought one of the benefits of them was that they were free... And with the maths problem, you would have to get EVERY email provider to enforce this otherwise it wouldnt work. And that is *no* easy task.

Next theyll be charging 2p per word for a google search

Phil

 

[WiK]

Also Neil, you forgot "I would send NO emails" on your poll.

It sounds like you need to be more careful where you give your email address out... Ive had this one for almost a year and have received 3 peices of junk mail

 

[Neil]

Hey hey.... I havent given my email anywhere other than TRF, TDD, EMRR, DR Rocket, and one or two of the rocket dealers. Overall I have gotten 4 or 5 spam emails, but they were very strange ones...

I KNEW I was forgetting something.... DOH! :kill:

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Here's an idea:

I put a price on my mailbox, say $.25.
If you are listed in my address book, you can email me for free.
If you are not in my address book, you must pay the fee for me to receive the email. You may request addition to my address book in this paid email. If I add you, future emails are free. If you start sending crap, I can delete you from my address book and your emails are no longer free.

 

[rstaff3]

IMHO all such schemes will be counter productive in the long run. What it will do is effectively stifle the use of email. They will also have a large costs in terms of development, deployment, enforcement, collections, and general bureaucracy. I could see myself spending more time fiddling with paying this one or that one, and in general managing my INBOX than I do dealing with spam. And you's have to be real careful about hitting 'reply all '

My opinions only.

 

[Neil]

Thats a pretty good idea, but still, where do you send the money, how do you get the money and all that?

 

[BlueNinja]

I get about 15 spams a day, and my filter catches about 500. I will be switching ISPs soon, so that should go down. I hardly send any email, i barely get anythign other than viagra ads and stuff from myself at school.

 

[Wonderdog]

Gentlemen,

Yes, your email WILL be charged (taxed) with postage in the future. We can argue, discuss, theorize and ponder, but never ever underestimate the ability of our elected officials (never mind Bill Gates) to come up with creative ways to increase revenue. The first mistake we make is to discuss using logic. There is none. Well, that's not completely true. Everything is done for "...the children, the environment and education." Remember that quote and see how often it is used in the next months. Sorry for the rant, this might be removed. Remember Pogo? "I have seen the enemy and he are us".

Da Dog

 

[Neil]

Yeeeaaaahh..... *I* need to watch who I give my email to, huh? :kill: 500 per day.... woow. and 15 that get through? That must be annoying....

I think the govt will find out it was a bad idea to tax email after they start taxing it and nobody uses it anymore. Either that or after a riot starts.... :kill:

 

[WiK]

Either noone will use it or people will find a way to bypass the paying bit and everyone will use that. What would stop someone setting up their own email server that doesnt charge and letting people use that for free?

 

[BlueNinja]

I wouldnt give if there was a math problem... Math is my best subject.

 

[Neil]

same here... It would be fine with me....

 

[Ryan S.]

hopefully this wont happen, but I am sure one political party would love to charge us for the emails we spend. This is kinda political so i wont say to much but I think we should not be charged to send emails. I mean we already pay someone per month isnt that enough?

 

[Neil]

We do? I wasnt aware of that.... I think my Email comes free because my mom pays hers, and mine is just the second or third email adress that you can add for free as long as you pay for the normal one. Im sure a lot of govt people would love to charge us tax on emails... I still dont think it would work very well, though.

 

[Ryan S.]

I have one free at school, but my parents pay for comcast internet and email. some emails are free but those are like yahoo and to get more storage you need to pay

 

[flying_silverad]

Wouldn't...Shouldn't...Won't



I Hope.

 

[rstaff3]

I don't think we'll see charges for emails. Just too much management and infrastructure required. What we very well may see is a tax on internet access and possibly connect time. That would be very bad.

 

[Lee Reep]

Originally posted by jflis
[B
Create an anti-email list (i'd even pay for the service to get my emails listed). If your name is on this list, you can't receive any email that solicits **any**thing, be it opinions, money, votes, whatever.

1st offense, small cash fine and a warning
2nd offense, large enough cash fine to bankrupt the business
3rd offense, prohibition from all computer technology
4th, life. [/B]

I'm in general agreement, but slightly different punishment:

1st offense: Public whipping or large cash penalty (spammer picks)
2nd offense: Death Penalty

Guess I'm at the saturation point on spam ...

 

[wwattles]

I've implemented a 3-layered defense that allows only 2-3 spams through per day, and blocks about 300-350 a day. It uses a "learning filter" system that looks at the spammers most recent tactics and learns to recognize them. Otherwise, I'd be in the same camp as y'all are.

WW

 

[rocketkid88]

(judge whacks mallet on table) WHACK! DEATH! LOL....


Public whipping...LOL. Stoning would be better lol....

ok... well maybe that’s taking it a bit far, guys, but... :kill:
i have a free e-mail address for school (i don't get any spam there), and then I have another one that i usually use if i need to give out my e-mail address to someone other than a close friend. the second one is free from ROL, and its the address i have posted on my website. i still only get 5-7 spams there per day. my mom uses yahoo and gets a whole lata spam.

any way, thats a bit *off topic*. so far as paying to send e-mails, i don't think they could ever re-enforce that, but if they did try i wouldn't send any e-mails i'd have to pay for.
The math problems sound good to me, it would make it harder for spammers to do their stuff, but still i don't think they could re-enforce it.

 

[PGerringer]

Originally posted by wwattles
I've implemented a 3-layered defense that allows only 2-3 spams through per day, and blocks about 300-350 a day. It uses a "learning filter" system that looks at the spammers most recent tactics and learns to recognize them. Otherwise, I'd be in the same camp as y'all are.

WW

Is your spam filter attached to your mail server (eq: MS Exchange) or to your mail program (eq: MS Outlook)? I run ORF whis is at the mail server level. It takes the IPs against approx 30 lists out there, one being SPAMCOP. It reduced my spam from approx 150 a day to about 15 a day. Now I'm looking to eliminate the 15.

 

[Neil]

OK. Hows this:

First offense: $500,000 fine
Second offense: one million dollar fine, 20 years in prison
Third offense: ZZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP!!!!


That seems more fitting... :kill: Give him two "warnings" of hefty cash fines and jail time, and if he doesent learn his lesson...:kill: