Thursday, October 09, 2008

Writing Workshop and Spam Filter

Where would we be without spam filters? Wading through hundreds of dubious adverts, offers of easy money and promises of even easier pleasure. And being me, I'd miss the genuine messages in all the rubbish. I find it very difficult to scan text - something to do with my dyslexia, I guess.

Three cheers for the spam filter? Maybe not. Because once in a while mine swallows something important. Like the e-mail I was sent months ago, telling me that the writing workshop I was supposed to be leading tomorrow has been cancelled. Thankfully I found out today and didn't make the trip into the wilds of Nottinghamshire.

Ah well. I'll offer two cheers for the spam filter. But I'll also look forward to the day when e-mails start costing a fraction of a penny each to send. Because that would kill the spammers' business stone cold dead.

And what about the money generated? Any suggestions for good causes? Seems like a win-win solution to me.

2 comments:

Mosher said...

One downside to the "fraction of a penny" idea - a lot of spam comes from hacked email accounts. Which would mean that the poor sod who'd had their account cracked would have to somehow figure out how to get the cash back. It would also lead to more concerted effort to crack email accounts in the first place.

Not that I'm arguing. I'm all for changing the punishments for spam to the snapping of a digit for each 100 mails sent, but I don't think our softy government would go for it.

Rod Duncan said...

Darn it. Another fine idea crashes and burns.

:-)

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