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China Getting 'Serious' About Spam?
Ritz_Just_Ritz writes "Apparently, the Chinese MII (Ministry of Information) is going to crack down on Spam from within China. This will include training for 1000 mail administrators and recruitment of 20,000 'anti-spam volunteers.'"
You can't solve all your problems with a great wall. Spam has been a problem for a long time, and it's one of those easily overcompensating balancing acts. Some services are overfiltering, and it's no surprise. There are all sorts of clever ways to try and sort things out, trying to recognize certain words or phrases or check to see if you know certain people, but in the end, there are always exceptions. What about that girl you met last night that really does work for the Mega Ab Destroyer 8000 Co? When it comes down to it, a fairly light filter that you check yourself, complemented with a whole lot of your own personal judgement tends to work. People need information about spamming techniques and what to watch out for, not just hard filtering.
Over at SpecialHam, the forum for bottom-feeder spammers, it seems to be business as usual today. No mention of any crackdown in China. Typical message: "Please give me ICQ UINs of poeple who make installations at trojaned computers. I need to install some software." There's some gloating over the collapse of BlueSecurity. Some new ways to spam Myspace. But no real concerns about enforcement today.
will spammers get the death penalty? Think I just found the ultimate ethical delimma for the average slashdotter. Is it good if China executes a spammer, but does so in it's new fleet of mobile lethal injection vans and harvests the organs for sale? When cheering the execution of spammers, which at least half the readership here has been waiting for, can you be sure your celebration is for a real spammer or a political dissident?
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
I agree with you.
eldavojohn, I think you're pushing things a bit far. Everyone agrees that the chinese government is opressive. But this is not Orwell's 1984. The government provides stability, which was rarely present in chinese history. There is no mass shuffling of money from the poor to the rich, although there is increasing disparity these days as industrilization makes it harder to make a living in rural communities. The government really does put the well being of its people first. Ahead of their foreign reputation, which is why we all see them as the bad guys.
I believe China will evolve into a democracy in its own time.