# Straight Dope and Spam **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 17, 2001, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877 "2001-11-17T03:20:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/22 "2001-12-02T23:18:55Z")
> [@](#): > > I was thinking of setting up a spam filter that looked for the word unsubscribe Please, everyone, don’t do this, I implore you. That’d just drive the spammers to send out messages without the unsubscribe link. …Then again, though, those links never do anything anyway… And if they didn’t have them, it might be easier to nail the offendors. ---
**Author:** ![Landsendman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/278dde/32.png) [@Landsendman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landsendman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/23 "2002-09-11T19:02:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TubaDiva \* > \*\*I hate to say this but even on this board you should use an email address that you don’t use for anything else . . . \*\* But those free email boxes all get closed after 30 days of disuse. So, since no one else posts there and you never go to check it, SDMB would soon find the box undefined and you’d have broken a rule. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/24 "2002-09-11T21:00:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*Please, everyone, don’t do this, I implore you. That’d just drive the spammers to send out messages without the unsubscribe link. > > …Then again, though, those links never do anything anyway… And if they didn’t have them, it might be easier to nail the offendors. \*\* Of course they do something. When you click it, it lets the spammers know that they have a valid email address to spam. Never click unsubscribe. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/25 "2002-09-11T21:04:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Landsendman \* > \*\*But those free email boxes all get closed after 30 days of disuse. So, since no one else posts there and you never go to check it, SDMB would soon find the box undefined and you’d have broken a rule. \*\* Is it that big a deal to check it once a month? ---
**Author:** ![Landsendman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/278dde/32.png) [@Landsendman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landsendman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/26 "2002-09-11T23:42:45Z")
Why do you want to check the box once a month? To collect the spam you’re trying to avoid? Or just not to have a dead email address for SDMB? What good is the SDMB address - if it’s a dummy account you aren’t going to display it, since then you’d be stuck looking for mail among the spam again. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/27 "2002-09-12T06:30:52Z")
Dummy accounts are good ways to log onto websites that require an email to register. That way you don’t have your real inbox flooded. But you check it once a month to keep it active, so you can stay registered at your accounts. Because if you don’t have a valid email account, you can get booted from websites that you registered for. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/28 "2002-09-12T10:42:58Z")
I’m still suffering a mild attack of Spam paranoia… On the question of denying any potential harvesting bots, what does the panel think of using a **\** tag in the template for the Profiles pages ? – I don’t know much at all about spamming so there may be a simple devise to circumvent the tag but it struck me as an easy-to-implement option that may provide a little more comfort to the ill-at-ease _\_ [http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html](http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/29 "2002-09-12T15:05:02Z")
Of course, one has to wonder at the motivations of someone who resurrects a months-old thread just to say “The administrators are all wrong.” Posters, **please** - DNFTT! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/30 "2002-09-12T15:28:45Z")
With that being said: you want to make sure that you have a valid e-mail address at the SDMB and check it regularly: a) So that we can e-mail you, for example if the board is hacked and passwords compromised, or to warn you that something you posted at the board was inappropriate; b) So that in case you forget your password, you can request that your password be e-mailed to you. Also if you send an e-mail to the staff the e-mail address is what we use to make sure that the person claiming to e-mail on behalf of Poster X _is_ Poster X. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877/31 "2002-09-12T18:30:49Z")
Please see the announcement on this subject, now being displayed all over the board for your reading pleasure. your humble TubaDiva Administrator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-and-spam/93877.md?page=1)