>>A good example of "altruistic punishment" as named by Ernst Fehr and Simon Gachter in the paper in Nature a few weeks ago I think it was Choated to the list but I got bored searching the archives for it - it was mentioned by John Young and someone else in context of not feeding the koalas though. <<
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-6.html >>As both S & B are usually negligible for spammers & D in this case if very large, maybe we have the answer :-) But it won't apply if spammers aren't rational actors (maybe like our friendly neighbourhood bilby) Tim mentions this way back in the archives years ago,It was on the cover of the New Scientist.It's the fairly famous aspect of game theory "acting crazy."Like if Ali convinces Liston that he is mad then he gains an advantage.I deny spamming and being irrational,of course.Did you see the one about how people hate a winner?killtheprimeminister,pr. "APster is the greatest altruistic punishment since operation soft drill" professor rat.
