Craig, Sorry, but I beg to differ with you. If someone asks me for my help, I do not expect to fill out any forms to provide that assistance - and I will not.
There are many very good and effective spam filters out there - I use Spambayes, and after a very short period of training, I have no false positives and all but a very few unsolicited emails are properly classified as Junk. To block all that are not whitelisted is more cumbersome than using a good spam filter, and reviewing the 'authentication' list takes much more time than training a good filter. The authentication process takes time on both ends. Note that I have replied to the list only because I expect I would be 'authorize requested' if I replied in a personal note - and I will NOT fill out the 'form'. Yes, each of us is the president of our personal 'company', and since we do not have a staff to do this task for us, it does take a lot of undue time. I may be retired, but I am certainly not idle!!! My time IS valuable. I do offer my time to help fellow hams, but for those who want to block me, I will not go to extra measures to provide that assistance. 73, Don W3FPR > -----Original Message----- > > > Please...if you are requesting help, don't insult me by > > expecting me to jump through these idiotic processes > > that say, in effect, that your time is more valuable > > than mine. > > I'm normally one who doesn't put up with a lot of crap. I just got a call > from a company asking me to make sure I've submitted my proxy for the > upcoming shareholders meeting. Did you send me the proxy > announcement in the > mail? Did it give me three different ways to state my preferences (mail, > Web, and phone)? Is one of my options to withhold my vote? Then > why are you > calling me? -- that kind of thing. > > However, your logic in this post is self-defeating. By refusing to go > through the process of being whitelisted, you are saying, in effect, that > your time is more valuable than the person to whom you sent the > email -- the > same accusation you make of him or her. > > Under normal circumstances these systems are harmless as long as they're > working properly. Everyone to whom you send an email should be > automatically > added to the whitelist so their response is not blocked. Everyone > who sends > an uninvited email is temporarily blocked. In that case the > sender obviously > wants their email to go through, so filling out a form to make it > happen is > not a problem. > > When replying privately to a post on a list like this one, there's no way > you can expect the original sender can pre-approve all list > members. So when > you choose to reply privately I don't see why it makes sense to complain > about having to go through the authentication step. Are you > really trying to > help a person or is this spirit of helpfulness just a thin veneer over an > otherwise cold, dark heart? The latter seems likely if all it takes to > discourage you from helping is an email asking you to authenticate your > identity. (By the way I'm replying to someone who replied to the original > sender, whose message I missed, so I'm not picking on anyone in particular > here.) > > In my position as president of my company I get a lot of unsolicited email > from customers. In many cases I'm sure if we did the math, my > time really IS > more valuable than theirs. I like to think that I'm above lording > that over > them, however, and have no problem doing a little vision test and > filling in > the numbers on an authentication form. > > Craig > NZ0R > K1 #1966 > K2/100 #4941 > > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
