Why am I getting all this spam?

Stumbled into this tonight:

http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml

It is a project carried out to determine how spammers get hold of your contact details for their evil purposes. I thought some might find it useful - especially those who are driven to distraction by the internet`s Second Evil (the first being Popups and the third being Times New Roman /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif ). The results are interesting, and back up what I`ve believed for a while - that posting e-mail addresses on the Internet in plain [email protected] form generates the most junk, due to harvesting by spambots and spiders. No addresses posted anywhere in a disguised (user at domain dot whatever for example) form recieved any spam in the experiment.

This would be my reccomendation to everyone - never post your address "plain" on the Net unless you actually enjoy all those messages for ***** enlargements, loans/refinancing and Human Growth Hormone Therapy.


<font color="AAAA88">At this point I`ll repeat what I`ve asked before of many people, and it`s on the next updates to all my contact-me pages on my web sites too: Please, do NOT post my e-mail address in plain, clickable form anywhere. If you need to provide others with my details, please link to one of my contact-me pages, or post my address "disguised". I will always do the same for everyone else - I never post addresses in plain form online. </font>


Death to all spammers!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

You might enjoy reading this site:

http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/index.html

Actually, the whole site is pretty good, but the map is hilarious and very interesting reading.

It's been almost a year since I've had a clickable mailto link anywhere on my websites. Unfortunately it's too late, my email is already on lots of lists and just keeps getting sold to more and more of them.

what's funny is, sometimes i get spam from someone called chris m. i'm dead serious.

i usually open it though, just to make sure it isn't you for some reason /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Chris M. said:
...by the internet`s Second Evil (the first being Popups and the third being Times New Roman /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif )...

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I am totally with you on the first and second evils but what in the world do you have against Times New Roman?

As far as I can tell, it is a nicely legible font which is what I personally want (can't stand the ones where capital I and l look the same /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif ).

Pat

I agree with Treek on the fonts; I LIKE TNR....

What REALLY irritates me is when I get spam from "myself".

Seriously; about 3- 5 times per day, I get an email that the the "From" address is one of my own email addresses. Of course I NEVER really send spam, but those ba$7@rds use every trick they can think of. I don't know why they bother.... Does ANYONE ever actually reply to this crap???

Thank God for MAILWASHER PRO; Probably saves me at LEAST an hour a day.

TNR rocks!
To hell with Arial!
bernhard

Bah! Don`t get me started on that, please!!! It is one of my top pet hates.

Uh-oh...

The only reason anyone uses Times is because it is, for some baffling reason, set as the default on most browsers and word processors. There is no other reason I can see that explins the prolific use of this fugly serif. Why on earth else would half the world use a 250 year old newspaper print for their signs, company logos and technical publications? I mean, why?

Personally I feel Verdana is the ideal all-rounder - it is easy to read on screen (times strains my eyes especially when small /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif , hence why I deleted it from my system completely so I never have to deal with it here again), looks good in print at all sizes and all the characters can be told apart form each other unlike Arial (which I think is otherwise OK). So, come on software developers - why on earth do you make your cutting-edge 21st century programs look like 200 year old printing presses?

I know users can change to whatever you want, but how many people actually do? Or know how to? Whenever I see a sign pinned up somewhere, or a van drive by on the street, and the text is printed in Times, it screams to me "the person who wrote this just threw it together in 3 minutes wihtout a care about how clear or aesthetically pleasing it is". The worst signs I see are those which have been put in bold text and underlined! What on earth is the point of underlining text on a printed sign? Underlining comes from handwriting where it`s very difficult to emphasize parts in other ways, whereas you have a world of choices in printed text. Also, underlining words on web pages make them look like broken hyperlinks which often leads to frustration...... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

But this topic is about spam. Which I hate even more - so let`s all direct our anger at spammers and save typeface-bashing for another day and another topic. My work here is done.....

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I use verdana almost exclusivley on my own website /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I use some others for headers or large type, but I agree that verdana is the most readable at regular and smaller sizes.

As far as spam, if we ever get those guys up against the wall please do pass the cattle prod to me for a go.

Sure thing, will do......

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

"Typeface bashing" - the newest way to make something hurt!
I use Verdana on most of my web pages, and generally hate fonts with serifs, like Times New Roman. I also dislike Comic Sans MS, and only use it rarely. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

As far as spam goes, I wish I could send it back to its originator and watch it crawl up their butt (like the Seminiferous Tubloidial Buttnoids) and have it get pooped out into a toliet and get flushed away for good - then rip the toliet out of the floor and lob it over the side of the Juneau Douglas bridge just in case some spam got stuck inside.
Ads for ***** enlargement, fake Viagra, spy cameras, and HGH ought to be outlawed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

You mean I can enlarge my *****?

[ QUOTE ]
shankus said:
You mean I can enlarge my *****?

[/ QUOTE ]

According to the spam, you can. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Send email to ____@____.___ and ask him/her/it how. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

BTW I love your new "Dark Absorber" avatar. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks, that's one of my favorites.

No thanks, I'll just stick with what I got. All my x-girlfriends already call me TRIPOD. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

OK.

Even though I'm an engineer, I have done a good deal of typsetting and page formatting (in the print world as well as on-line), and in fact at one time won a national award (for design) with a monthly newsletter I produced for my wife's union.

Now, since everyone appears to dislike Times, lets find out what you DO like, OK?

Since there are distinct uses where a serif font is psychologicly and mechanically preferred over a sans serif font, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENERAL PURPOSE SERIF FONT?

Now that we have that all figured out, here's the other, matching question, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENERAL PURPOSE SANS SERIF FONT?

In designing web pages one has a whole lot less control over which font is used than in any other medium. Just because one specs Verdana or Comic Sans, or Helvetica, or Garamond, or whatever, does NOT mean that font is available to the browser on the client machine, nor does it mean it will be used even if it is.

What a client browser displays is determined by availability and defaults. If the font you choose is a unique and proprietary Microsoft font, for example (anything with "MS" in it's name) it is only available from Microsoft. Someone not giving Bill Gates III money to use their compouter may not have access to it. In that case, whatever the user has set as the default is used.

You think you really control size? Hah! That, too, is controlled by the client. You can change relative size - this line of type is larger than that line, for example - but not the absolute size. My mum's machine generally shows it's type much larger than a page designer might expect, but then she needs to because of her vision.

Even relative size is a limited control: On my mum's machine the smallest size that can be displayed is set to 14 point. if someone specs, oh, say 9 point or 12 point for some text, it shows up as 14. That means a page with all 12 point specified except for words to be emphasized spec'd at 14 will all display in the same size on her machine.

Sorry, but that's another of my buttons: Total lack of proper design, and no whitespace on most web pages. Now that everyone can "publish" on the web, everyone thinks they know how to do it if they have some of the technical details down. That's, I suppose, why most web pages have as much artistic design as the typical newspaper: Trying to get the most on one page that is possible.

Twitching burning monkeys and wiggling blinking text don't help in most cases, either.

Oh! That's another: Any page who's designer thinks that they have to impose their musical (non)tastes on a visitor go on my blocked list. It's an intrusion I don't care for, and in most cases is TOTALLY unnecessesary.

Now will sombody please kick me off of this soapbox? Please?

Those font questions again are:

1) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENERAL PURPOSE SERIF FONT?

2) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENERAL PURPOSE SANS SERIF FONT?



-= MICROSOFT FREE ZONE =-

I like OCR-A BT, and Tahoma, but I have no idea if they are serif or sans serif. What exactly is serif?

A small decorative line added as embellishment
to the basic form of a character. Typefaces are
often described as being serif or sans serif
(without serifs). The most common serif typeface
is Times Roman. A common sans serif typeface is
Helvetica.

I see. A very good example.

hey thomas..quit yelling questions! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

wow, there is quite a difference between those too...amazing.

Generally I don`t like Serifs but realize they have their place. If I had to, I think I`d choose Californian FB or possibly Bell MT. Both quite elegent but not overly fussy either. I wouldn`t use serifs on screen as main body text. Headings, yes, maybe.

Sans-serifs, well I`ve already expressed my preference for Verdana as the best all-rounder in my opinion. For headings, I kind of like Impact and Bank Gothic Medium.

For a scruffy handwriting-like print, which almost resembles my own, I tend to go with Chiller. My handwriting is really bad!

Regrettably as a slave to Bill G (aka Windows user), I know nothing of other OSs and their core fonts, but I`ll always include a generic "sans-serif" in my font tags. And I`m well aware that I have practically no control over my pages, unless I use a lot of graphics - and even then things aren`t set in stone. I learned this the hard way a couple years ago when I was new to it all, after spending ages making a great page layout using MSIE and 1024x768 screen, only to try it at a friends house using Netscape and 800x600 screen, where it was all over the place.
These days I try my best to ensure my pages will display adequately on as many setups as possible. It`s always plain and simple HTML wiht no Flash or Java and none of that wierd nonsense that MS`s popular web page making software fills its code with. I design all pages by hand using a text editor (Win Notepad) and preview them using MSIE6 (recently upgraded from 5.5 cos I`m sick of all these spyware cookies everywhere). When I straighten out the dent in the side of my old PC (don`t ask) I`ll use that one as the offline web development box and fill it with as many different browsers as I can get hold of. I like MSIE on this online machine and don`t want 6 browsers all competing with each other to be the default and set the look of HTML file icons. OK so it`ll still be Windows-only browsers I`ll have for testing, but that`s only cos I don`t have the knowledge or patience to dual-boot with Linux/Unix, and I don`t have the money (or space for another box and screen) to buy a Mac. Maybe in the future....

Incidentally I welcome feedback about my sites from users of as many different OSs, browsers and screen setups as possible. Asides from my sometimes unique color choices (Craig J donesn`t care for my oranges and browns!) I`ve never recieved any complaints so I must be doing something right?


<font color="800080">Any page who's designer thinks that they have to impose their musical (non)tastes on a visitor go on my blocked list. </font>

Aaah, the joys of not having a sound-card! OK so they`re actually rather limited, but not having to endure web page midi files that can`t be silenced is definately one of them. This is another something I never do, besides my silly Vector/Hub page which plays the theme tune of an old British TV network once when you enter the page. I did that before I changed machines, I used that tune as the Windows Start-up tune (and still have it set on the laptop), but only because I find it amusing, and only because it`s on a silly little page that gets all of 2 or 3 hits per day maximum.


Anyways....enough of this.....back to your reguarly scheduled topic.....


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Tomas said:
Oh! That's another: Any page who's designer thinks that they have to impose their musical (non)tastes on a visitor go on my blocked list. It's an intrusion I don't care for, and in most cases is TOTALLY unnecessesary.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to have "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" on my Safeco Field site, but it was very easy to silence for those who might not like the song, and it was only on the opening page too. My website about toliets still says something naughty out of the speaker, but it's about toliets so it's fitting. And my vector page says "flush the toliet bowl" from a Commode 64 computer (using the SAM voice synthesizer), though it's probably less on-topic than some of my other stuff.
I don't HIDE the players on any of the pages that have them, so the user can always turn them down or off if the sounds are bothersome.

Right now, the only pages of mine that have any sound are my vector page and my toliet pages.

Chris, I've heard that Thames theme before, when I used to pick up PBS when I used to live close to the Smith Tower in Seattle. It's not bothersome at all. Much less so than the voice on my toliet page. Careful at work if anyone visits it there, because it has the "F" word in it! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif