I Need A Recipe For Spam, And I Don't Mean That Canned Lunchmeat Delicacy

Like you, I get so much e-mail clutter these days that I sometimes miss the important mail.

I fear airplane travel. Not because of the terrorist threat. Not because my aging back can no longer handle schlepping baggage like it used to. I fear it because if I'm off mail for a day or two, 300 messages quickly multiply into 600 or 900, and it becomes too overwhelming for me to filter through the garbage.

I suppose it's my own fault for putting my e-mail address in the publication to make it easy for my column readers to threaten me with physical harm. (If you think I'm joking, try writing a disparaging column about Apple and see if the drones don't come out of the woodwork clamoring for your head.)

At any rate, my internal IT department has tried to help. But I'd have to begin identifying repeated spammers for IT to filter out the spam centrally. To be honest, I don't have the time. And anyway, as fast as I can identify the repeaters, new ones pop up.

Instead, I'm training myself to scan more quickly and delete more efficiently, largely by deleting mail, unopened, from any sender whose name I don't recognize or that doesn't have a catchy subject line.

I have to admit, every once in a while I slip up and open one of these e-mails, either accidentally via an ill-placed mouse click or intentionally because a disguised subject line seemed relevant.

Next thing I know I'm on some porn site, dating club site, or even worse, I find myself facing a poorly written high-tech press release. In all honesty, I'd rather shut down my system to stop the pop-ups on a porn site than read most of the press releases sent my way.

My point is that there is a big opportunity for solution providers that can bolt together a real solution here.

E-mail is too important to all of us in both our professional and personal lives. We need a real solution for eliminating spam, and the problem is not an easy one to resolve.

I'll tell you what I want in the way of a solution.

If I regularly delete messages from a spam offender without opening them, the solution should automatically block the party from sending me more.

If I do open a message and decide it's spam, I ought to be able to click a single button to block that party from future messaging.

When I explore a message that borders on being spam, I ought to be able to easily message the sender that I consider their writing to be nearly worthless and I will block them from future communication if I receive another like it.

Any message sent that ships me to a Web site that has pop-up ads should be blocked automatically.

To make the order an even taller one, I don't want my important e-mail to be blocked accidentally. The only thing worse than getting a lot of spam is not getting the stuff you need.

For instance, CRN Industry Editor Barbara Darrow recently discovered that an IBM press release she should have received was blocked by our anti-spam system because it had the word "insurance" in the subject line.

All this poses a great opportunity for solution providers.

Make something happen. I can be reached at (516) 562-7812 or via e-mail at [email protected].