There ’s been quite a bit of medium turn about AOL and Yahoo ’s plans to adopt a quarter - cent “ email revenue enhancement ” or “ stamp ” or whatever you want to call it , and we ’re here to tell you it ’s horseshit . While this utopian vision of data point exchange for pennies a Clarence Day — the monetary value of a cupful of coffee — wee for skillful Business Section written matter , this will go in practice . And by “ fail in practice ” we mean “ never , ever get off the ground . ”
Their theory is this : if you have to pay to send email , you wo n’t send spam . This theory has a gaping hole — spammers will pay to direct you junk e-mail . It all depend on your definition of “ spam”—and how lax AOL or Yahoo ’s definition will be .
Our thoughts after the jump .
The only on-key anti - spam method acting is challenge - reply , AKA the spammer Turing test . ( “ Hi , this is Joe ’s letter box . Just hit reply to prove you exist and you ’ll never see this subject matter again . ” ) This trial already cost plenty in terms of central processor round and bandwidth and the pay - for - play imaginativeness is a upstage cousin to this same process . ( “ Hi , this is Joe ’s mailbox . Pay me to send this message . ” )
The way AOL ’s organisation works is frustratingly similar to theMarijuana Tax — you pay for “ stamps ” so as to get at AOL ’s bulk email system of rules . If they pay , organization like the Red Cross and Red Envelope can spam you willy - nilly while the rest of the po ’ folks with the phallus anovulant will have to contend with junk e-mail filter — the same filters which they have been bypassing quite handily already . This sounds like a direction for these adult bozo to get a piffling cash and for the other big hombre to find like their doing their part in not make water you off .
believe us , bozo , you are pissing us off .
It ’s the mail manage protocols that are broken . The creators designed them to ensure easiness of use , which led to the rise of spam . What we require here are n’t way for AOL and Yahoo to bankroll their next incorporated retirement in Bali , but an entirely fresh arrangement of electronic mail “ subscriptions ” which ensures that email to and from the kinsfolk from whom you want to pick up email induce it to your letter box , and everyone else ’s is buffet back . This will take a concerted attempt by open source / pedantic folk music to espouse and uphold this new system which will then filter down to the incarnate grade . Of course , new systems for spam - resistive email have been in the add-in for years , but no one — even people not attempt to make money on the side — have been able to amount to any variety of understanding .
E - mail charging plan to beat spam[BBC ]
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