Bouncing email - an open letter to someone who doesn't like

Whistle
1

First, let me assure you that I know that Wendy is okay, and that it is possible to email her. What is not okay, not very damned okay at all, is that someone, and I can only suspect that it was someone from C&F, given that I post nowhere else from this location, has seen fit to register my IP address here with one of the “vigilante” anti-spam overseers.

I do not care one damned bit why it was done. I do care that some cowardly individual actually did it, and didn’t have the balls to tell me. Know this: When I find out who you are, and I will do so, even if I have to subpoena the records of the company you contacted, I will come after you with all the strength of the law. You have potentially deprived me of income. You have, without any legal reason, deprived me of my right to free speech. And be very, very assured, that I will see you in court.

If you want to send me an email and apologize, I will let it go. Otherwise, I will call my attorney on Monday morning, and we’ll see if your little snit was actually worth the price you’ll pay.

Regards,
Bill Whedon, Owner
Serpent Music

2

Now, Bill, you can be angry without using rude and offensive language.

I’m curious–what makes you think it’s not just a server malfunction somewhere? Do you have actual evidence to back up this assertion?

And, just in case we need to be reminded, we’ve all agreed to abide by the “Reasonable Person Principle.” Anyone read it lately?

The Reasonable Person Principle is the rule which you must abide by when posting to the forums. Put differently, following the Principle is your obligation to your fellow community members.

The Principle was borrowed from Carnegie Mellon University, who use it as the governing principle for access to their computer systems; since it works for a whole University, we hope it will work for a message board with a few hundred participants.

From Carnegie Mellon University’s own explanation of the Principle:

  • Everyone will be reasonable.
  • Everyone expects everyone else to be reasonable.
  • No one is special.
  • Do not be offended if someone suggests you are not being reasonable.
Reasonable people think about their use of these facilities, and the needs of others, and adjust their behavior to meet the goals of a common good for the community, i.e., expressing what you want to say, but accepting and accommodating the needs of others.

M

3

I can see that you’re angry. But before you spend money, I should tell you that it is likely not anyone here but there are a number of other possibilities. By all means see if you can track the person down, but it is most likely someone using a vulnerable IP address. I’ve had the same thing happen to me and there isn’t a whole lot that you can do. Change your passwords, alert your internet company, and wait a week before sending Wendy another e-mail. It will likely clear itself up.

Erik

4

As far as I know, there is no way for a common user at C&F to glean your IP address through this message board. So your only culprits here would be Dale and Rich. Hope you find your perp.

5

Yikes! What has happened in my brief absence? I’m here, I’m OK, my email seems to be working, at least I think it is, as I am receiving messages daily, what address is not responding? I haven’t been posting lately because I’m overwhelmed with the move into my rebuilt house.

6

What’s a ‘vigilante anti-spam overseer’?

7

What’s an IP address?

Sorry, back in the age of papyrus!

8

On 2003-01-01 22:21, tyghress wrote:
What’s a ‘vigilante anti-spam overseer’?

yes, I would like to know that too…what exactly is happenning that has got you so angry and how does it affect you personally? Is this something we should all be careful of, and how does one protect themselves against it?

Cheryl

[ This Message was edited by: one-tin-soldier on 2003-01-01 22:34 ]

9

It wasn’t me and I have no idea who it was.

10

First of all, Wendy, it was your other email, not the klezmusic one. Your email server there is likely subscribed to a spamblocking service. Nothing to do with you, other than you didn’t get the email.

Marguerite, please re-read the post. “coward” is not bad language, and was the strongest appellation I used. “Damned” is also common parlance, and I did not use it in a personally-abusive manner, but to make a point.

I consider my reaction to be fairly measured, considering the implications of what was done.

Gleaning my email address is not difficult at all from here. It is freely available. I have my own mail server, as well, and when you have my email address, you have the name of that, which, when pinged, resolves the IP. Any moderately-technical person can figure that out.

How do I know it was done? Because I backtraced the bounce to the original server that caused it. I then went to the site of that server and looked. My IP is, indeed, marked there as being a source of spam, and was so marked in response to a complaint.

Now you’ve gotten the explanations, I’m going to leave it alone until Monday. If Dale or Rich want to kill or lock the thread, I don’t care, because I won’t be back to it. My next action, if any, will be to see my friendly attorney. Simple as that. After that, the only other person who’ll hear from me about it, will be the one who did it. Own up and apologize, it stays between you and me, and we’ll go fix it, no harm done, we’re still friends.

Cheers,
Bill Whedon

11

I think M’s problem was ‘balls.’
Not mine, though.

I don’t think anybody here is
that sneaky. I once had something
analogous happen to me–it’s hard not to jump to conclusions.
Best

12

This may be a dumb question, but could it be a mistake? I know on one of the boards I monitor, when one person is blocked for spamming, trolling, or whatever, often others who have the same IP will find themselves blocked as well…then the board monitors get plaintive emails asking “What did I do? Why can’t I post?” What I’m not sure of is whether it works the same way with mail servers.

I have occasionally been unable to receive emails from certain addresses, and I wonder if there’s something similar at work there…perhaps some kind of rotating block? For example, when I was working with Sandy on my Elfsong order, I could email her, but she couldn’t email me…we ultimately had to do business through the private messaging feature here at C&F.

Redwolf

13

Nothing to see here, move along…