Whitelist/verification spam filters

[Terry Hancock]

From: Sean 'Shaleh' Perry <shalehperry at attbi.com>
> On Tuesday 27 August 2002 15:16, Erik Max Francis wrote:
> > Perhaps it's just me, but I find it annoying having to go through hoops
> > to contact someone for legitimate purposes.  It's the same kind of
> > thing, although more so, as people using mangled email addresses on
> > Usenet.  The most infuriating case is when someone asks for help on
> > Usenet; if I reply by email and the mail bounces because they mangled
> > their address, I'm not likely to fix it and resend -- it's their loss.
> >
> > Forcing people to jump through hoops for you just strikes me as terribly
> > rude.
> 
> Indeed.  I find this similar to websites which require me to get a login from 
> them to do anything.  In particular I had to jump through this hoop to submit 
> a bug on a piece of software.  Took me a total of 5 minutes to get the 
> *ability* to submit the bug (submit request for id, wait for email with id, 
> login with id, then learn the site).  I am sure most people here know that 
> getting users to submit bugs is hard enough, but making them go out of their 
> way to do so is virtually guaranteeing some bugs will never be reported.  In 
> my case I was being paid and *had* to submit the bug otherwise I would have 
> let it go.

I thoroughly disagree with this -- a website is a broadcast, not
a point-to-point communication, and is a poor match for email. While
it's certainly true that I have public email addresses which I
tolerate getting hammered (and they do), I can certainly appreciate
the advantage of a whitelist-based email for private use.

I think that taking the attitude that one has a right to force
ones way into someone else's mailbox is pretty rude, actually. ;-D
Freedom of speech is great, but so is the freedom not to listen.

Logins for websites are IMHO, fine, as long as the user can see
clearly what they're getting for their trouble (and they do get
something for it). I like the view-anonymously, contribute after
login approach pretty well. I agree that making anyone go through
hoops to help you out is bad design, though.

I think its a matter of application and personal preference.

Cheers,
Terry

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Terry Hancock
hancock at anansispaceworks.com       
Anansi Spaceworks                 
http://www.anansispaceworks.com 
P.O. Box 60583                     
Pasadena, CA 91116-6583
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