Anonymous email users
Sebastian Wells
sebastian at here.com.invalid
Sun Jun 23 01:58:17 EDT 2024
On Fri, 14 Jun 2024 18:00:37 -0400, avi.e.gross wrote:
> I notice that in some recent discussions, we have users who cannot be
> replied to directly as their email addresses are not valid ones, and I
> believe on purpose. Examples in the thread I was going to reply to are:
>
> <mailto:HenHanna at devnull.tb> HenHanna at devnull.tb
>
> <mailto:no.email at nospam.invalid> no.email at nospam.invalid
>
> <mailto:candycanearter07 at candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
> candycanearter07 at candycanearter07.nomail.afraid (user <candycane> is
> generated from /dev/urandom)
>
> I know some here suggest that we only reply to the wider community and
> they have a point. But I think there is a role for having some
> conversations offline and especially when they are not likely to be
> wanted, or even tolerated, by many in the community.
>
> Using such fake or invalid emails makes it hard to answer the person
> directly or perhaps politely ask them for more info on their request or
> discuss unrelated common interests. Worse, when I reply, unless I use
> reply-all, my mailer sends to them futilely. When I do the reply-all, I
> have to edit out their name or get a rejection.
>
The spammers won the spam wars, so even if you have someone's real
e-mail address, that's no guarantee that you can contact them. You
certainly wouldn't be able to contact me at my real e-mail address,
unless you also had my phone number, so you could call me and tell
me that you sent me an e-mail, and what the subject line was so I
can find it. I don't even open my e-mail inbox unless there's a
specific message I'm expecting to find there right now.
With e-mail addresses being phone-validated, it's not easy to create
a new one either. And even if I did, you can't even trust e-mail
providers not to give your address out to spammers.
The only function e-mail addresses serve now is to positively identify
the sender of a Usenet posting so he can be targeted for harassment,
lawsuits, or worse.
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