Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Robin Everett said:

 

>I'd consider this the same as those endless horse catelogs

>that show up from places I've never heard of and never

>ordered from.

 

People always try to analogize among junk snail

mail, junk phone calls, and spam.

 

This misses the absolutely essential point that

junk snail mail, junk phone calls, and spam are

qualitatively different.

 

The horse catalog vendor had to pay for the

catalog's postage.  The telemarketer had to

pay for the phone call to you.

 

Spam is unique in that it is the only form

of advertising where the "postage" is paid

for by the receivers of the messages.  Millions

of spam messages can be sent out at virtually

zero cost to the spammer.  The cost of

transporting the message is born by the

backbone hardware, the routers, the processor

time, and the disk farms of the ISPs whose

customers are targeted.  And that translates

into higher monthly fees for you.

 

It is the classic tragedy of the commons.

Alas, the only real solution may be to make

email a toll service for the sender.

 

And now back to our program...

 

Linda B. Merims

lbm@xxxxxxxxx

Massachusetts, USA