🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Nagle:
>>clewis says "They're not based on _what_ was said ...", Greg adds
>>"unless someone says Make $ Fast". No mention of Australia or
>>France here.

danny@cs.su.oz.au (Daniel Yee):
>Of course not... Chris Lewis isn't Australian and provides spam
>cancellation services to the world - why should he mention
>Australia or France?

Exactly. He makes a particular point of saying that the content 
of the message is totally irrelevant in deciding whether to 
cancel it. All that is considered is objective things like the 
count of newsgroups. Things that you can write a program to do.

My complaint is that the Aussie version has aquired a content 
based criterion.

When I first saw:

gnb@bby.com.au (Greg Bond):
> -  Are a continuation of the MMF SPAM in any of its guises.

I thought, that's just a 'net myth, a bit of folklore, surely no 
one actually posts the original and best Dave Rhodes any more, do 
they just change the name or something?

Then after seeing a few of Greg's cancellation notices, the penny 
dropped.

>Earn $150,000.00 in 30 days
>        $$$   FOR YOUR RECIPES   $$$
>[Illegal chain letter deleted]

>[Illegal scam deleted.]

>[Seychelle's phone MMF.  THIS IS AN ILLEGAL CHAIN LETTER. YOU 
>CAN GO TO JAIL FOR PROMOTING IT.]

"A continuation of MMF..." means _any_ illegal chain letter, scam,
pyramid scheme etc.

Good grief! Not only do we get a free newsgroup counting service, 
we get free legal opinion as well. A clever piece of programming!

Whether these schemes are legal, ethical, suitable for family 
viewing or anything else is not the point. These decisions are 
subjective, and cannot be made by a program.

What should have been a straighforward system to "save the 'net" 
from the excesses of spammers, has been expanded to allow people 
to make value judgements as to what is fit and proper for us to 
see.

I think we should drop any cancellation rule which requires a 
human to read and comprehend the article.


Danny:
>But you are not Dave Hayes, thankfully.

Never heard of him, was he the guy that invented the modem 8-)?

...Dave