Spamming the ADS - L Mailing List

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2005 at 07:43:32PM -0500, Baker, John wrote:
>
>         David Blanco saw Billy's post to ADS-L, asking for
> removal, and thought it was a personal email to him.  He
> replied that his company purchases lists for one-time-use
> only and that Billy was not on any of their current lists.
> In other words, David was confused.

The fact that there is someone on ADS-L in the business of
mailing lists is odd, but there doesn't seem to have been
anything other than an accident involved, and no one is
spamming ADS-L.

>         I don't speak for the Society, obviously, but there
> is no reason to believe that it sells members' email
> addresses, especially since anyone who wants to can use the
> Review command to get the email addresses.  The Review
> command predates the widespread use of spam.  Perhaps it's
> time for our listowners to change the list's properties and
> keep private the addresses of non-posting members.  I can't
> think of any good reason for that information to be freely
> available anyway.

Anyone who wants to keep their address private can do so;
the instructions are on the ADS website. Most members I've
spoken with have appreciated the ability to find e-mail
addresses of fellow members, and as far as I know there has
never been a spam-related abuse of this ability.

Jesse Sheidlower
co-listowner, ADS-L