Spam is one of those things I *hate*. You've all heard at least once in your lives someone saying "stop complaining and do something about it", right? Well, here's my first step towards that.

"What are you doing about it?"

On the root page for this site you see a number of address listed as spammers. These accounts have sent one or more pieces of spam to users of PlanetX, which to me is the equivalent of wearing a target on your back. Aside from folks who might frequent this site, there are also "spambots" that run out across the net gathering email addresses from news posts, poorly run ISPs and... web pages.

Since I will not flood the net with these peoples addresses (that would itself be a form of spam), and I try to run a tight ship elsewise, I list these addresses here instead. So, send off a piece of spam, get yourself on a spamlist. This sics spammers on spammers... not my idea originally, but has a certain irony to it. This is really only the first step I plan to take, but the future is so bright. My primary desire is to make sure any action taken has no effect on anyone other than the guilty parties, so any actions taken are done with this in mind.

UPDATE 1/18/00: Ok, so there is another thing I can do about it. Paul Vixie, patron saint of anti-spam & my hero, maintains the MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) site, "... a California nonprofit company whose goal is to stop the Internet's e-mail system from being abused by spammers". I highly recommend this site to other ISP's or anyone who have a problem with spam. To the spammer or the spammer-friendly, know this: I WILL bring attention of your activities to the RBL if you do not cease & desist. That will cause you a world of more problems than your spam could ever make up for; see the RBL site for how this grassroots effort will cause serious pain to the pro-spam types.

I've already succeeded with one fellow who was too full of himself & even threatened this site. Don't make his mistake.

"How did I get here?"

One piece of email is generally all it takes, although on good days I will issue a warning to spammers, and a second is required. In the days past when spam was new, I was willing to give people the benefit of the doubt that they honestly didn't know it was bad. A poor excuse, but I prefer to be the forgiving type.

Now... no, not anymore. I would like to, but the knowledge that unsolicited email is *BAD* is public. This ignores even the limited hopes for human intellect to realize that unasked for solicitations are wrong. So, commit the offense, add your name to the list. Beyond that, the gall of people who believe it is their unalienable right to send spam, who laugh at those trying to keep things kosher; these people seem to be in the majority. These people see the net as their playground, and they feel they can be the spoiled children they perhaps were when they were younger. Never mind the huge number of people who want to use it to help engender communications, the net is for these children to rape & exploit, to make their money and then left to fester.

Wrong. You want to protect your children from the evils of the net, work against those who display such behavior. THAT is where real evil lies.

"How do I get off the spamlist?"

Should you feel something is wrong, I require a few things. First, if you did not send the mail, some proof helps but I will take your word *the first time*. Keep in mind that I read through the headers and logfiles and can track down email origins pretty easily; getting past this is non-trivial. A few comments from your sysop (or you, if you are the sysop) on how you're dealing with this is pretty much required too. A sad fact that we must actively defend our names, but such is the world, and you have my sympathies and support in this (this includes you too, AOL; your sysops and sysadms have hard jobs and are making a great go at it).

If you acknowledge said deed, an apology is required. I don't need/want a rational, who said it was a good idea, or anything. A "sorry, I won't do this in the future, spam is wrong" is sufficient. Your sysop must be included in this; if you're the sysop, I'd like to see some official policy, although to be blunt I'd be a little disappointed. I believe in education, though, and a person who discovers their errors and corrects them brightens my day.

By the way, there are no "second chances", or very, very few. If you ask to be trusted and then disappoint, you've only screwed yourself. Those people do not escape the listing (and further actions to be taken in the future). Thus far the only thing I've been semi-convinced of is denying mail connections, or autobouncing all mail with the "you are listed as a spam site, contact xxx if you wish to change your status".

In the future, I may keep a public archive of sent spam; if you send spam to this site, you hereby grant permission to have it publically displayed. As of this writing, however, I do not have this enabled. On folks who claim innocence but I can then prove dishonesty, mailings from such folks claiming innocence may also become public.

I'm sorry any of this has to happen. Perhaps this semi-grassroots attempt will be effective; I can only so. Oh, and a comment: I keep all the spam I get. This means that if you spam more than once, I *WILL* know.

Joe Di Lellio PlanetX Sysop & Owner