Re: In Response to Aedan

[Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

  I'd be very interested to know what email program you are using and on what
  platform. I'd also be interested in knowing what virus attacked your hard
  drive and how precisely it was transmitted. Please be specific.

May I also recommend the chapters in Chapman's book, and Cheswick and
Bellovin, on virus laden email, in their Internet Firewalls books.  And
PRIVATE email for further converse?

Suffice it to say, experience tells in these matters, and the opinions of
the underinformed do not.  Rare is the email that damages systems without
overt action from the user, but common is the nonsense and off topic email
about viruses and urban legends.  The rules of common sense and courtesy
that have developed on these matters have done so for a reason, and they
still apply to the quickly changing world of modern email.

That means: Don't repeat urban legends to mailing lists, even if they are
funny or interesting.  Don't repeat calls for charity, calls for email,
calls for greeting cards, etcetera.

Don't repeat messages about viruses, unless you can demonstrate YOU have
received one.  In which case, send a note to your system administrator or
account manager, and not mailing lists.

Don't send email to a mailing list to see if you are on it, or if it is
down: send a note to someone you know is on the list, and ask them if it is
down, or check with the list administrator.

And, the most important RULE of all: don't whine about inappropriate email
on mailing lists.  It's tiresome (after more than a decade of doing Internet
style email) to note that every inappropriate letter is followed by 20
inappropriate whines about it, and an obligatory flame war over whether it
should have been posted or not.

WHENEVER possible, use private email to question appropriateness, or to
express a personal opinion.

	Tibor (Got my first Internet Equivalent account in 1986:
		mitre!necis!schuldy.  Currently, I work for a firewall
		software and Internet company, that helped invent the
		Internet)
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