On average, about 70% of the email I receive is spam or otherwise unwanted. Most of it is caught by my web host or the Outlook junk mail filter. As would be expected, many of the most pernicious offenders are involved, including phishing scams, re-fi, hot stocks, pharma, pirated software, and porn. These are being actively combatted on many fronts. Hopefully DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and/or other technologies will be effective in making spam economically non-viable. There are a couple other forms of unwanted email may be a little trickier to deal with. Most people will recognize the chain letter, which frequently begins with, "This is true. I checked it on Snopes.com." Then the writer goes on about something that is nearly invariably totally false, and concludes with something like, "Forward this to everyone you know." Trying to convince people to just delete these rather than continue the chain is akin to herding cats. Lastly, there is the weekly or monthly newsletter that comes unsolicited from people who I meet at a networking mixer. As an independent computer consultant who performs on site computer services, a lot of people end up with my business card. A few people I meet ask if it's ok to send me their newsletter, and I'm absolutely ok with that. Unsolicited newsletters from people I don't know are another story. Although I'm not inclined to tell these people to take me off their list, I'm not likely to recommend their services to clients, a colleague or friend. In conclusion, I offer this advice -- "Be considerate of the person at the other end of your email."
Craig Herberg
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