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Spam via HN ...

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Re: Spam via HN ...

#13
It is not Spam per se if it is relevant - and clearly in this case someone has gone to some trouble to identify relevant recipients for a specific email. Where is the "crime" in the commercial aspect - we are all in business one way or another? I do think you are being too sensitive. If you do not want to receive emails from users of HN then perhaps you should not make your address available.

Re: Spam via HN ...

#14
Maybe the erosion started when I arrived (sorry), but the last 6 months I have not noticed any decline. I read HN daily, and each and every day I find it equally useful.

Take that for what it's worth.

Re: Spam via HN ...

#15
post #2

Welcome to the Internet.

I used to invest a lot of time in HN precisely because it wasn't at all like the rest of the internet. I'm not sure using the internet as a measure of quality is a wise choice.

(Although one could argue that targeted spam is inevitable when a community grows beyond n users, regardless of the quality of the community.)

Re: Spam via HN ...

#17

"It is, however, unsolicited "commercial" email. Via HN." Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought your email was available on your profile page for anyone to read and extract. So as far as I can see all this means is that someone is trawling HN profiles for email of likely startup employees and sending out email. How is this different from posting your email on any web page anywhere on the Internet? I would im…

If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine.

Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers.

Re: Spam via HN ...

#18

"It is, however, unsolicited "commercial" email. Via HN." Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought your email was available on your profile page for anyone to read and extract. So as far as I can see all this means is that someone is trawling HN profiles for email of likely startup employees and sending out email. How is this different from posting your email on any web page anywhere on the Internet? I would im…

If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine. Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers.

"If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine."

hmm it does fit my definition of spam. Hence my suggestion to "Mark as spam".Maybe you aren't replying to me?

So yes, I agree it is spam.

"Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers."

I agree(again perhaps you aren't replying to me). I don't see where we disagree.

I don't understand the surprise (and handwringing) about spammers harvesting any publicly available email on any webpage. This has been true since the beginnings of spam. Why should HN be immune?

Re: Spam via HN ...

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine. Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers.

"If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine." hmm it does fit my definition of spam. Hence my suggestion to "Mark as spam".Maybe you aren't replying to me? So yes, I agree it is spam. "Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers." I agree(again perhaps you aren't replying to me). I don't see where we…

I think the main problem here is that it seems to be HN'ers spamming other HN'ers.

If it were for some large sum of money that I'm going to come in to it would be business as usual, this is different.

Re: Spam via HN ...

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If it does not fit your definition of spam then that's fine with me, but it definitely fits mine." hmm it does fit my definition of spam. Hence my suggestion to "Mark as spam".Maybe you aren't replying to me? So yes, I agree it is spam. "Anybody that would not even take the time to read the profiles they're sending these emails to are spammers." I agree(again perhaps you aren't replying to me). I don't see where we…

I think the main problem here is that it seems to be HN'ers spamming other HN'ers. If it were for some large sum of money that I'm going to come in to it would be business as usual, this is different.

" think the main problem here is that it seems to be HN'ers spamming other HN'ers."

Well (a) an HN'er is just someone who has filled in two text boxes. There is not even amoderator approval step to join HN and it is not like you have to have a certain amount of karma to see email addresses. (b) (I could be wrong about this but) you can see email addresses even when logged out if they are part of the "publicly exposed" part of the profile. So you don't need to be an HNer to harvest a good set of emails.

If I am wrong on (b) then maybe the moderators can do something about this, but I can't think what. Anyone can log in with pseudo name/password combo. quietly harvest all visible emails and hey presto targeted spam.

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