Leo + Python: the ultimate scripting tool: Conclusion

[Douglas Alan]

"Terry Reedy" <tjreedy at udel.edu> writes:

> "Edward K. Ream" <edreamleo at charter.net> wrote in message

>> >  Such a request is *NOT* a legitimate 'anti-junk-mail' measure.

>> Yes, it is.

> Your request is unnecessary to the purported purpose and, to at least
> three people, obnoxious.  Furthermore, I believe universal
> implementation of that system would be terrible, both socially and
> technically.

Although I agree with you that requiring people to fire up a browser
to get yourself on their whitelist is a bit annoying, I also think you
make much ado about nothing.  Even if you had to spend 30 seconds
authorizing yourself to everyone you ever needed to contact, it could
hardly take all that much time.

For now, the technique of just asking people to reply to a message is
sufficient as an anti-spam filter, but you have to realize that such a
convenience won't last forever.  The spammers will eventually get
smart enough to auto-reply to such messages.

In the long run, the sorts of techniques that Yahoo, and other web
sites, where you have to look at a distorted image and identify it (a
task that cannot easily be automated), in order to put yourself on the
list, will be required, so you should probably get used to it now.

|>oug