I got this same exact message in my inbox, so i would say it's a distributed
thing. I made the mistake of sending back a positive reply ("yes, i would
like to help with a project that promotes wikibooks") before reading this
post to textbook-l.
I think we need to give serious consideration to the fact that it's not
necessarily "spam" but instead a genuine (if misguided) offer of help and
support.
--Andrew Whitworth (Whiteknight)
From: Robert Horning
<robert_horning(a)netzero.net>
Reply-To: Wikimedia textbook discussion <textbook-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: Wikimedia textbook discussion <textbook-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] [Fwd: Wikibooks e-mail]Link spamming
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:57:17 -0700
Martin Swift wrote:
Hi Rob and gang,
<snip>
Perhaps, we should rather have the server
administrator send a single,
to-the-point email stating that this person has been in breach of the
terms of usage (I'm assuming there are such) and that continued abuse
will result in being barred from using the server.
Cheers,
Martin
OK, here is the original e-mail:
<MESSAGE>
(from bushi_bashir2010(a)yahoo.com)
Hi there,
I hope this email will find you in good health. I am working on a website
of "Computer Networking".
I need to have Unique articles for my website on any topic of computer
networking, hardware, wireless networking
computer troubleshooting, data communication etc.
In return I will give you permanent credit in the form of a link to your
URL with every article you provide for my website.
I will also promote your Computer Networking related books on my website if
you allow me. Hopefully you will get good traffic towards your website(s)
through my website.
I will be very much thankful to you if you can provide me any kind of help
in this regard.
Looking forward to have a positive reply from you.
Best Regards
</MESSAGE>
If you are talking about a server administrator, who might that be? This
was sent via the web interface on en.wikibooks, of which I'm an
administrator there.
My main point is that I believe that this individual has likely spammed
privately several individuals on not only Wikibooks but other Wikimedia
projects as well. This must have been a fairly tedious process, as the
MediaWiki interface is not really set up to send bulk e-mails, but there
are some motivated individuals.
My experience with yahoo is that they don't really care when these things
get sent, and shutting down the account will do little good, as least from
their perspective. This is a throw-away e-mail account that is here one
day and gone the next. I know, I've made a few myself (mainly as an
anti-spam measure when I've used them). Still, I suppose that in this case
it might be worth it to try.
-- Robert Horning
P.S. I forgot the Wikimedia mailing list server strips off all
attachments.... this was previously a forwarded message.
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