Eesh. I just got e-mail from someone today who apparently got my name off the old masturbation thread and decided I might want to, you know, talk about some stuff over e-mail. Does this happen to you guys? I know that when I let you post with anon@xeney.com, I get responses to your posts at that address, so I assume that some of you get random weirdness sent directly to you.

How often does it happen? Does it freak you out? Irritate you? Make you laugh?

I guess what I'm asking is, should I password protect this forum when we stop using it, so that these random people don't come in via Google and bother you forever? (New forum: you can hide your e-mail or use a fake one publicly, although you'll have to give me your real address so I can send you your password, but people *can* send you private messages on the board itself. You might be able to disable that as well, though. And I'm definitely blocking the new forum from Google.)

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

Answers

I personally haven't had any unwelcome e-mail come to me from this forum. Usually I get people sending spam to the address I post on my journal site, which is used for incoming mail only and then forwarded to my real account, claiming I am receiving their spam because I asked for it. (Using an address that's never attached to anything outgoing ... uh huh.)

Still, I wouldn't mind if this forum were password protected. I think it would be good for people who do get unsolicited mailings, and I can't think of any benefit anyone would gain by leaving it open. It seems like a low-cost, high-value solution to me.



-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

Er ... the address I'm referring to is also the one I use here. Hmmmm.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

I would be your slave for life if you password protected this place after it closes up, and un-Googled the new place. Slave for life! Like, paint your house and clean the cat litter slave.

Because the creepy stuff that comes to me from Lusenet postings is about a thousand times creepier than any other spam I have ever gotten. Ever.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

I get creepy email on occassion, but not often enough that is a problem. Some are even good for a laugh. It does make me wonder if these folks actually get any responses. I mean come on, does he really think that sending random emails with the subject line titled Masturbation is really going to find him a "quality person"?

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

Beth: I think you're troubles are over. If you get Kristin as a slave for life we may never need to read another entry about how you promise sometime this year you're actually going to clean the house and get a new bookcase and such.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

Definitely password protect. I don't want any more emails saying they've got hot pictures of farmyard animals getting it on.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

Damn. Looks like I'm never going to unload those pictures ...

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

a thousand times yes! to the password protection.

one of the reasons i don't post more often (and use my cruddy backup hotmail account when i do) is because of all the spam i've gotten that i suspect has come from greenspun.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

This will, no doubt, be a case of 'once you say it, watch out', but I have never gotten unsolicited email - spam or otherwise - because of this forum.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

I don't know if it is from this forum or elsewhere, but I have been plagued by industrious individuals who I believe find me on this site and then go to my journal site and email me. Nothing major, but I add my vote to password protecting this forum.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

FYI, for awhile I was using "GreenspunSpam@12pointfont.com" as my address when posting to this forum. I guess I used it maybe 20-30 times? Anyway, I have yet to receive a piece of spam on that address. But yeah, I think password protecting the old one wouldn't be such a bad idea. That address hasn't been picked up YET by spam trolls, but that doesn't mean it won't.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001

Spam is such an ez thing to overcome, I've almost stopped sending it. THe conservative in me says passwords are good, the liberal says no passwords and make prostitution legal.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

If any of you girls are feeling left out because you're not getting the forum spam, I can give you this guy's e-mail address if you think he's your type.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Oops. You can't link to photos at Geocities. You'll just have to use your imagination.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Jolene and I also received e-mail from that guy. I was like "didn't he READ what I said?"

Anyway. I vote password protection.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Maybe we should invite him to JournalCon.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

I see a fairly strong correlation between when I post on greenspun boards and when new spam appears in my mailbox. So yes, I vote for password protection. You wouldn't necessarily have to hide the forum completely from Google. I just use the META="noindex/noarchive" tags in my journal pages, so that the main page can be found but it supposedly won't index and cache the text of every single entry.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Unfortunately, because of the way the forum works, I think I have to un-google the main directory, because I can't do it to each page. I'm not sure.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

I used to post on "another" forum with my work email, which is what I use the most... I got into a heated debate on spousal abuse and started receiving threatening messages. Because my email was "myname@mycompany.com" it wouldn't take a genius to come hunt me down... so I now use a fake name and a generic webmail.

So, yes on the pass.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

One interesting note on UBB: back when I still had the beth@threewayaction.com address, I never received a single piece of spam at that address. So that's a point in favor of UBB.

I know a lot of spam comes straight from Network Solutions. Jeremy has his domain registered with an address he uses for nothing else, and that's where most of his spam goes.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Ack! I never thought about people getting my email address off here! *wondering if white-out works on the internet...* I haven't gotten any creepy stuff yet, but then again I delete anything that I don't recognize the source from and I've only been on here for a couple of weeks. *shudder* passwords pleeeeaaasssseee.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

I got email from that guy too! What a geek.

I don't care if the new forum is password protected or not. Things like this make me laugh and are simple to delete.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Now I'm curious. Who is this guy?

I get a shitload of spam but it's probably because I have several domains registered in my name. Most of it is for "home business" stuff (toner cartiges, etc). I also get tons of porn spam but I think of that's probably Rudeboy just doing a public service of letting everyone know of the treasures he's discovered.

Thankfully I haven't gotten The Email That Will Stop Oppression Of Women In Afghanistan If I Just Forward It To Everyone I Know or The Email That Will Cause Bill Gates To Give Me Lots Of Money If I Just Forward It To Everyone I Know lately.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Wouldn't it just be simpler to combine them into the E-mail That Will Make Women in Afghanistan Stop Oppressing You if Bill Gates will Forward Large Sums of Money to Many People?

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

I admit, this kind of mail cracks me up. The mail that bugs me is the random mail on non-sexual topics that people have found in old forum posts ... I never know what those people are talking about, and they don't write to me unless they're pissed. Since my name is usually at the top of the post, I also frequently get mail from people who didn't read the whole thread ... sometimes they're bitching me out, but we actually agreed on the subject at hand. Those are sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, and sometimes downright creepy.

I have a special folder called "filth" for all the sex solicitatinos, which I never, ever got before this forum started. Here are some of my favorites:

hello
   sexy arse bitch,

i have an arse just as good as yours !

   lets take a look

See, it's like a little poem. Not quite a haiku, but he's working on it. And this one:

I would love to pic out bras for you,,,,,if ever 
interested,,,,,please e 
mail....Neil 

I may have to take him up on that one, what with my recent troubles in this area. I've also gotten some good ones about toenail painting (that was in Kymm's forum, and I think a bunch of others got it, too), my big feet (quite a few of those -- they always want photos), and my hot sexy boyfriend. And then there's the hate mail:

beth- you know what i think. i think are a dumb bitch. i think 
your father should of punched your mother in her stomach while she 
was pregnant with you. i think that fireworks will explode the day 
you die. i think that if a rock fell from the sky and landed on your 
head it would be god saying hello. i think that if jesus knew he was 
dying for your sins he would of had gay sex with paul. i think that 
the smell of your vagina could kill children. if jesus had sex with 
you the pope would fuck you in the ass at the same time cuz you'd 
like it that way. this is what i think.

But he might have posted that from the journal, not the forum. Either way, can't you just feel the love?

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Wow, and I thought my hatemail was bad. Usually I just get some reactionary patriotic idiot whos mad because I said something bad about America. My favorite was when someone told me that I obviously didn't make much money so therefore I have no right to criticize the government.

Are these sex mails all from the same guy? That's the impression I'm getting from people's comments.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

All the ones this week are, I think. Greg, or something like that? The others are just random.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

wow... if you just played with the line layout to that a little bit, it'd probably win an award in some obscure poetry magazine.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001

Man, I can't believe you are getting some action from the Pope. 'Cause he is hot! I love a man in uniform.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

So . . . my idea to offer to help you, uh, pic out bras isn't original? Hmph. Well I won't even bother now. But if you want help going big ol' shoe shopping, you just let a girl know, won't you?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Any time, guppy.

Another forum question that I'm playing around with -- I just reread that old masturbation thread, and it was *really* good for a while before the trolls showed up. I wasn't going to have a sex forum at all, but here are my thoughts on how we could have one:

1. No access at all until you've reached 50 posts on non-sex threads. What that means with this forum is that you wouldn't even know the sex forum was there until you got access to it. That means regulars only.

2. A fairly rapid expiration period -- like 30 days, maybe? That masturbation discussion was good, but I know some of you probably wish it wasn't still out there with your name and address visible.

Thoughts on that?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

i am going to have to start commenting on things not animal related i guess...

one nasty email with regards to something relationship oriented a few months back and that's it!

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Kristin! [snort] Don't do that to me when I'm at work! I just spit frappuccino all over my monitor.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

David, here's the email I got. (I feel like holding him up to public ridicule...)

Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 04:26:34 -0400 From: **** To: **** Subject: masturbation

Hello. How are you? I saw your name/e-mail on some post board online. My name is ****, and I am looking for people online to talk with and become friends. I am 27, 6'0", 175, blonde, baby blues. I am from Nebraska but now live & work in NYC. I am college educated and work as a computer consultant in Manhattan. Here is a recent picture of me: http://www.geocities.com/**** I enjoy digital photography, reading, writing, the outdoors, travel, and gourmet cooking. I ^Òm looking for something very specific^Å With friends, I prefer QUALITY over quantity. I would like a ^Óreal-life^Ô friend who I can stay in touch with by phone, e-mail, and in person. Someone who is a good listener, supportive, open-minded, mature, and who I can talk to about anything, including personal things like relationships, sex, or even masturbation. (If you can talk openly about things like this, and see them as normal parts of life, then we^Òll click.) Basically, I want a female who is in touch with herself and who she is as a person.

I think I'd rather not have topics only live for 30 days; that just doesn't seem long enough. Surely we can ignore the trolls? We've done pretty well up to now.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

"in touch with herself"

Ok, now I'm laughing...

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Should I write what everyone's thinking about Gred Redtie's mouth, or should I restrain myself?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

my mother searched my name in google and found a bunch of my posts here (whole other story). silly me, I was using my real name and I didn't realize that it would come up in a search engine (internet naivete). after that I didn't reply to certain posts because it made me uncomfortable that my name was out there linked to my posts. then I started using my diaryland email, even though my site is down. I like the anonymity.

I do get a lot of weird spam. it never occured to me that people might be getting my info from here. beth, if I ever got anything as mean and nasty as you posted, I'd think I'd cry. I'm sure after it happens a few times it doesn't bother you as much, but jeez, that guy was just pure evil!

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Actually, I like the idea of "secret" thread access that only shows up after you've made so many posts.

I have no idea what the "surprise" topics should be, but it might be an interesting experiment.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Thirty days isn't very long, but remember that *all* posts on the new board will be temporary unless it's a thread we deem worthy of the archives. That's not just for privacy; it's because I don't want to have to resort to expensive hosting. The best way to accomplish that is to not accumulate a huge database of posts, I think.

Cory, I was going to offer to grandfather the regulars in to the secret forums, and not make you guys wait until you have fifty posts, but if you'd prefer the surprise, that's even easier!

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Speaking of email and things I don't care for, I particularly dislike the way after I post, people get my words shoved into their email box. It's not that I figure you should have to take the time and effort to actually come to the sight or anything, it's actually a feeling that I'm imposing. Honestly, I can't stand to know that everytime I write something here B-dog and the other masochistic gluttons that sign up to be emailed, get an instant 'you've got mail'.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

How about we just have a secret thread to talk about Cory, and Cory only gets to see it after he's posted 1000 times?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

i think that if a rock fell from the sky and landed on your head it would be god saying hello. i think that if jesus knew he was dying for your sins he would of had gay sex with paul. i think that the smell of your vagina could kill children. if jesus had sex with you the pope would fuck you in the ass at the same time cuz you'd like it that way. this is what i think.

I just read this and luaghed so hard it made me cry. The way this guy turned religous all of the sudden then went into the killing children line then back to religion. Oh god, that's funny. A rock falling from the sky - I gotta remember that one. Even the way he started all his sentences with "I think" and then ended with, "This is what I think." is funny. I've never received such fabulously funny hate mail.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Rudeboy: I know. It read to me like someone's fourth grade class had an assignment: write a paragraph about why you hate Beth. Be sure to include a topic sentence and a conclusion!

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Fifty posts seems like a lot for those of us who are regular lurkers but merely occasional posters...

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

"Fifty posts seems like a lot for those of us who are regular lurkers but merely occasional posters... "

Yeah, what about us poor, fairly recent lurkers who haven't yet posted much but who don't want to miss out on what the cool kids are talking about? Ah the humanity. Is there a test I can take to prove to the forum that I'm not a 14 y.o. troll boy?

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Rudie, I think Jenine's question has your name on it.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Yeah, I'll leave that one to Rudy.

I can compromise: if you're a lurker but you've written to me in the past or I otherwise know who you are, you can write and ask for permission to view the entire forum. But I think that only applies to people I knew before today, because ... well, just because. If you're smart you'll figure it out.

Otherwise we'll just have to consider it a special perk for the blabbermouths.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

I like the 50 post idea actually, except that if you decide to do that, it would be good to have a wide range of topics that aren't on the sex thread. Some of us can't talk about birthday fun because we have no one to do fun birthday stuff with us, and we can't talk about boyfriends or girlfriends because we're pathetic single losers, and we can't talk about cable TV because we can't afford it ...

okay, now I have decided that I'm too lame to be allowed on forums. *sob* It's not like I could have posted anything to the sex-related forum threads anyway!

That's it, I'm giving up computers forever and joining the convent.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Would you mind coming up to visit me so we can have sex before you do Jette? I've always wanted to say that I a)drove a woman to lesbianism or b) sent her to the convent. It's this whole Ross from Friends/Sam Malone thing I've got going on.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Sam Malone! He is Sam Malone! Rudeboy, you made my day. I coudn't put my finger on it alone, but the thought was hovering on the brink on my consciousness.. You and HE are one. It was so obvious all along...

on (secondary) topic: yeah, 50 posts or so is a problem for the lurkers [like I am, except in the sex threads (see 3wa way back for proof)]... BUT I think it's a very good option to avoid trolls. 30 days of archive, hm... maybe. If you decided to dump some anyway for space/money reason, then yeah, the only question is the length of the lifetime. Dunno what's better.

on topic (primary): I never ever ever received spam on this address I used here, on 3wa, on pamie's forum and others. Is this 'cause I'm in Europe? Anyway, touch wood and all.

off topic: the reason it's easier for me to post on sex-related thread than in other places: most of the news coverage and cultural (pop or not, TV, books) things you almost all share because of living in the US I don't have access too. Most of the relationship talks I get involved in make me sound like a judgemental holier-than-thou dork (i.e.: leave him if you're not happy,and no it doesn't matter that I couldn't f**ing do it myself for 5 years), plus, I'm now perfectly happy, so there's not a lot to say :-) I don't have a dog or a garden, hate outdoors activities and basically spend my free time designing websites that don't make it live and reading B/S buffy fanfic [there's some top-notch fanfic writers out there, wow]

Sex is a thing I'm ALWAYs interested in, and can talk about freely. Something I read about a lot, research a lot, and enjoy a lot. If I have to bore you all to tears to reach a quota that will allow me there, prepare your tissues, 'cause I damn well will :-))

funny that I never get spam even though i only speak out in sex thread. Guess I'm that boring.

Sorry 'bout that.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001

Yawn.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001

I'm glad I now know why I got an email from our lovely friend Greg the masturbator. I was wondering where the heck it came from. I wrote back telling him not to ever contact me again...the email I got back said nothing inside, but was titled "Okay, BITCH".

Woohoo! I've been insulted by a troll!

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001