Recently, Mozilla released some alpha versions of a new program – Raindrop – that has the magnificent objective of re-personalizing email and messaging. Aside from the classic objectives of unified messaging, this is an attempt at making the tools we’ve been using for 15 years practical again. I read earlier this year that 90% of all email is now spam.
Even after the spam filter, more like 50% of what gets through is not personal, and the other 50% few are addressed only to me. Like junk mail, most of what we do now is rapid filtering and disposal. Most of us are no longer outraged by email as we once were, but resigned to the permanence of it, and the endless stamping out of it like roaches.
This is a recently started blog, and already, I’ve been sent several posts that are essentially spam that needed to be deleted. They all appeared to be automated. When I made a website for a late friend, Jim Gavuzzi, the “message board” was taken over by a swinger’s club in costa rica. I had to delete it all…like…every other day. At least it was not automated spam
LIke the robber barons of Wall Street, we’d like to seem these people publicly shamed and humiliated as the widespread harm they’ve done has been mind boggling. Safe steps include the obvious: don’t click on links that are the entire body of the email, don’t open spam, don’t reply to spam, get off all mailing lists,etc. If you want to learn more, read Symantec’s state of spam.
How true Mark; being a mostly web gallery the spam that comes in daily is a deluge of wasted time; hang these loafers! Ironic, in that photo on JG’s page, we’re all looking at the camera, yet Jim is focused elsewhere.