Email (As We Know It) Doomed?

Mephie writes "A pretty interesting article at Slate.com takes a look at how spam may be killing email as we know it. With the increase of spam, the argument is made that more users will switch from blacklisting spammers to 'whitelisting' specific, trusted addresses, making email more like instant messaging: if you're not on someone's 'buddy list,' you have to prove you're an actual person (e.g. identify a word in an image) to send a message." May be?

Comments

Funny

[RobertTaylor]

I had spam yesterday where they spelt Viagra wrong. Unless Viagrea is a new wonder drug?

Re:Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean they "Spelled" Viagra Wrong?

Re:Funny

[Temporal]

I received a spam once with the subject line "You're a winner!" and no body. No text, no attachments, nothing. Just "You're a winner!" I guess they thought I needed some moral support. ::shrug::

Also, 90% of all spam I receive is in Korean. I live in the United States, and have never visited Korea nor spoken Korean. I only know it is Korean because Eudora used to ask me if I wanted to install the Korean language pack whenever I'd get one (I eventually told it to stop asking).

Though nothing beats the spam I received which started with "If you are a time traveler or alien and or in procession of alien or government technology I need your help!" As far as I could tell, it was completely genuine. The guy seriously wanted alient time travel tech. He requested that responses be sent to his AOL e-mail address. Go figure. (The complete text is a page or two long, but it's pretty funny. I'll post it if anyone is curious.)

whitelist vs whitelist

[myspys]

so what happens when person A emails person B? if both of them have this whitelist-filter..

B's whitelist emails back saying "identify yourself", A's whitelist respons with "identify yourself"

infinite loop?

Up early to see the Leonids, and I got SPAMMED!

[saskboy]

Checking the early morning Hotmail... *sigh* another ad for me to get a bigger penis. Imagine if my real friends were always telling me to get a bigger penis? I'd have no where to turn.

Re:I don't even use email anymore

[gowen]

You heard it here first... According to 'JeffSh', IM is going to replace them all..

Hey, lets all "Ask William Shatner" why I don't yet have a subspace communicator built into the badge on my sweatshirt.

Also : why don't these sweatshirts come in nicer colours...

Re:I don't even use email anymore

[C0LDFusion]

I'll let YOU wear the red ones. :)

Re:I don't even use email anymore

[evocate]

The reason I like the telephone is that it lets me be lazy. If I'm feeling energetic, I go and yell at them in person.

Re:I don't even use email anymore

[4of12]

Yep.

I love it, too, when well-meaning relatives annotate their email address books to help provide a detailed handle on exactly to whom the email addresses really belong. Not to mention filling the message with plain text details of their lives and yours.

As Joey the teen script kiddie looks in horror at the email headers, Aunt Agatha has completely blown his coveted stealth email address...

To: '"Joseph Wayne Smallpecker, Des Moine Iowa"' <h4Xor31337@x5.cx>

(plain text describing Joey in detail to the Feds.
Is he still getting a C in shop class at Fred MacMurray High School?
Aunt Agatha is happy with her sweater she got for her birthday.
Her poodle is not feeling well.)

Re:I don't even use email anymore

[MillionthMonkey]

Hey, lets all "Ask William Shatner" why I don't yet have a subspace communicator built into the badge on my sweatshirt.

Hahaha, I can just imagine Kirk slapping on that thing and getting spammed.

"Boost your subspace communicator signal!"
"Dilithium herbal crystals!"
"Barely legal teenaged green chicks!"

"Captain's log, stardate 10.25.2... We are going to beam down to the planet's surface, to meet the late Mr. Mogubutu's brother and transfer the funds from the dead ambassador's bank account to my own."