John, >> unfortunately, that act of communication _is_ the adverse side >> effect. it tells the spammer that yours is an active, responsive >> email account. JL> I must disagree. JL> Iljitsch stated it precisely and well: "the fact that a message is JL> discarded as spam" need not give any information about whether the JL> recipient is an active email account -- least of all "responsive". If this were a math exercise, I would have to agree with your point. And even though it is not a math exercise, your point certainly is relevant. The difference is that there are practicalities of implementation and use that we have to anticipate. This falls under the unfortunate reality that the real-world is not conducted so carefully. On the average, user-level Internet mechanisms need to be pretty simple and straightforward, if they are to be successful. d/ -- Dave Crocker <dcrocker-at-brandenburg-dot-com> Brandenburg InternetWorking <www.brandenburg.com> Sunnyvale, CA USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>
