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Two years spent spamming spammers back

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Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#91

Post by chipperyman573 »

Exuma wrote: post #2

This is great, and would be even more brilliant if it could integrate some sort of markov chain, like https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditsimulator I'd love to see it have random answers that are unique based on the question. Then you make it a global service that hundreds of thousands of people can forward messages to, and then you waste spammers time en masse.

The problem with a markov chain is that the sentences it generates are often nonsensical. A markov chain is useful for predicting a few words out of a sentence a human already has generated, but not an entire sentence.

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#92

Post by [deleted] »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #57
grecy wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you being serious? I am. I'm the guy who wrote the story, maybe I did a bad job. It's not like they're getting violent or "trying to extract money from me" - jeez, when you do buy something you can just hold out a handful of money and they'll take the right amount - extremely, extremely honest. In reality, they're just trying to sell their stuff, I don't understand why someone would react by yelling and getting…

Because it works. Its simply experimenting with different reactions until achieving the desired effect. I want to communicate disinterest in buying from street vendors. I try various forms/styles of communication until I accomplish my goal. I've had this problem in the USA, and merely looking unfriendly is often sufficient. In your situation, that's clearly inadequate.

[deleted]

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#94

Post by jacalata »

halomru wrote: post #64
codingdave wrote: post #55

Sure, great idea, funny and clever and all that. But I disagree with the idea that inboxes are sacred, and disagree with the attitude of "how dare people send marketing to me!" Fraudulent spam is one thing. Plain old marketing or sales cold calls, though... you know people are going to do it. It is their job. And I'd much rather get emails than I can quickly delete and ignore vs. phone calls. And once in a while, som…

>sales cold calls, though... you know people are going to do it. It is their job. Sales cold calls are illegal in my country and happen to me once every few years. My email address isn't so lucky. >Sure, junk mail is annoying and most of it gets thrown out. And more importantly: I can put a simple "no advertisements" sign on my real mailbox and cut down junk to almost zero. I wish I could do that to my virtual inbox.…

> I can put a simple "no advertisements" sign on my real mailbox and cut down junk to almost zero.

Fun fact: this isn't possible in the US. I'd never considered how that might influence how Americans think about spam email in general.

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#95

Post by pbhjpbhj »

khedoros wrote: post #84
codingdave wrote: post #55

Sure, great idea, funny and clever and all that. But I disagree with the idea that inboxes are sacred, and disagree with the attitude of "how dare people send marketing to me!" Fraudulent spam is one thing. Plain old marketing or sales cold calls, though... you know people are going to do it. It is their job. And I'd much rather get emails than I can quickly delete and ignore vs. phone calls. And once in a while, som…

They're people that know that they're wasting small amounts of time for large numbers of people and presumably gaining financially from some small number of those people. I delete the e-mails because it's the quick and convenient thing to do, but I don't have any problem with the idea of someone trying to waste their time. "It's their job" isn't a convincing argument; it sounds too much like the defense of "I was jus…

Agreed, "it's their job" is a poor excuse - that's only because someone chose to make it their job. We could instead have a resource where you can search for what you want and use that resource to request things, oh wait we have that, so we don't need cold callers in society. They seem only useful to the capitalist owners who employ them.

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#96

Post by [deleted] »

enraged_camel wrote: post #59
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it works. Its simply experimenting with different reactions until achieving the desired effect. I want to communicate disinterest in buying from street vendors. I try various forms/styles of communication until I accomplish my goal. I've had this problem in the USA, and merely looking unfriendly is often sufficient. In your situation, that's clearly inadequate.

>>Because it works. So does spam. That's why spammers keep sending it. Does that mean it's OK? Clearly not.

[deleted]

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#97

Post by Alexey_Nigin »

grecy wrote: post #27

> Imagine if this type of thing happened in real-life. You walk out the door in the morning and you’re immediately attacked by Parul, Kevin, and Amelie. I laughed out loud at this, because it's exactly what I'm experiencing now in West Africa. Street vendors are aggressive about selling whatever they have, and they seem to assume I want it - almost like I owe it to them to buy it - I'm not sure if it's because I'm Wh…

I had a similar experience in Thessaloniki, Greece. In this city, there is a famous tourist attraction called The White Tower (which has grey color, by the way). One day, I had to wait in Thessaloniki for a couple of hours, and I decided that it would be a great idea to sit down near the tower.

Well, it turned out to be a bad idea. A few hundred meters from the tower, I was greeted by someone who self-identified as a "friend from Jamaica". He tried to advertise something, but walked away after I asked him politely. As I continued my journey, I met more and more of these "friends". When I eventually reached the tower, I discovered that about 10 of these guys were circling around it. They were all very polite, but they advertised their stuff every time they stumbled upon me, which happened about once per minute. After some time, I decided to find a different place to rest.

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#98

Post by [deleted] »

grecy wrote: post #36
bigdubs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously not the same but I've had this happen in a couple places and I just say "FUCK OFF" as loud as I can and get visibly upset and they leave me alone after that.

....That's a horrible way to react. I wonder what these people think about you and your country of origin. You are, after all, an ambassador for your country when ever you are outside it.

[deleted]

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#99

Post by [deleted] »

bigdubs wrote: post #34
grecy wrote: post #27

> Imagine if this type of thing happened in real-life. You walk out the door in the morning and you’re immediately attacked by Parul, Kevin, and Amelie. I laughed out loud at this, because it's exactly what I'm experiencing now in West Africa. Street vendors are aggressive about selling whatever they have, and they seem to assume I want it - almost like I owe it to them to buy it - I'm not sure if it's because I'm Wh…

Obviously not the same but I've had this happen in a couple places and I just say "FUCK OFF" as loud as I can and get visibly upset and they leave me alone after that.

[deleted]

Re: Two years spent spamming spammers back

#100

Post by imjustsaying »

grecy wrote: post #36
bigdubs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously not the same but I've had this happen in a couple places and I just say "FUCK OFF" as loud as I can and get visibly upset and they leave me alone after that.

....That's a horrible way to react. I wonder what these people think about you and your country of origin. You are, after all, an ambassador for your country when ever you are outside it.

This is dangerous advice.

There's been times where I've had hawkers and hasslers continually pester me, where I would ignore them or politely decline while walking away, yet they would begin touching me or continually follow me, leading to attempted pickpocketing, robbery, and sexual assault.

Some will touch you on the shoulder, others will maintain some distance and continually get closer to you only to make a swipe at your pocket then try to run away with your cell phone or wallet (happened to me twice).

One trinket-selling "monk" followed me into a building and grabbed me, but I managed to get back outside.

Another person followed me into three different public bathrooms, which I kept having to exit after he continually followed me and went to the urinal next to me so he could look over at my penis. Eventually he stopped only after I walked by a security guard and yelled about what he was doing.

It is 100% OK to yell at any hustler whom you are walking away from but is still following you. Not doing so was always how the aforementioned scenarios began.

They know your vulnerability is your politeness, your "ambassador" mentality. Don't remain vulnerable when they cross the line and keep following you.

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