feedback to David Cary

updated 2003-09-30.

• feedback form
• email tips
• stirring up controversy
• privacy policy

feedback form

Don't expect a fast response.

bug: equal signs in the above area are not transmitted Avoid using them until the bug is fixed.

email tips

I regret to inform you that it is impossible for me to respond unless you enter a valid email address. (Sorry, "Zasraksj").

Should you choose to send me email rather than use the above form, please note that I use spamassassin to filter out many other kinds of spam. periodical.html#bad_things . If you send me something that looks too much like spam, that software deletes it and I never see it. So there's no point sending me mail that I will never see, such as:

• If the ``Subject:'' line is blank, my software deletes it and I never see it.
• If the ``Subject:'' line mentions any visible part of the human body, my software deletes it and I never see it.
• If the "From:" line doesn't show a human name, my software usually deletes it and I never see it.

  	good: From: d.cary@sparkingwire.com (David Cary)
  	good: From: David Cary <d.cary@sparkingwire.com>
  	bad:  From: d.cary@sparkingwire.com
  	

• If you use "html" rather than "plain text", my software usually deletes it and I never see it.

In addition,

• If the ``Subject:'' line is vague (such as ``Read this'' or ``Where to send?'') or uses exclaimation marks, I assume it is spam and delete it without looking at it.

Other email tips:

• A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
  Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
  A: Top-posting.
  Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

  -- The Wanderer (possibly quoting someone else)

• "my rules of email etiquette" by Mark Irons http://rdrop.com/~half/Personal/Life/ContactInformation.html
• ``good rules when emailing anyone'' http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
• Quoting Style by Richard Kettlewell http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting.html discourages "top posting".
• ``Common Mistakes in Email Messages and Usenet Postings and How to Avoid Them'' by Anton Ertl http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/mail-news-errors.html discourages "top posting". claims that

  Shouldn't all newsreaders reformat paragraphs when displaying, making this issue moot? No, there are many contents where the format must be preserved, e.g., postings containing tables, ASCII graphics, program source code, or poetry.

• Email Quotes and Inclusion Conventions http://info.astrian.net/jargon/How_Jargon_Works/Email_Quotes_and_Inclusion_Conventions.html discourages "top posting".
• "We Can Put an End to Word Attachments" (and PowerPoint) by Richard M. Stallman 2002 http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
• 1. When you sent me email, you are requesting access to my eyeballs. Access is granted only on my terms. I choose to read my mail in monospaced 10-point text in a terminal window. I don't care if you want to use blinking underlined boldface or WingDings, it will be read in monospaced 10-point text in a terminal window or not at all. . -- "Ten reasons why I do not read HTML email" by Charlie Stross http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi#rant-1
• Ra-Ra Google Groups and Netiquette : Usenet practices that have developed over the last quarter century.

A Attempt to Stir up Controversy and get Email

OXO Corn Holders have ``butter dams''. http://www.oxo.com/comfort/family.html DAV's family calls these ``corn cob sticker-inners''. Other people call them ``corn knobs'' or ``corn cob pokey things''. Or corn skewers. What wierd names does your family use ?

Cryptography: I am currently morally opposed to using cryptography to hide information. (Other ways of hiding information are fine). But perhaps I could be persuaded otherwise. See http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/editorials/codeprotect.html for a similar viewpoint. On the other hand, using cryptography to authenticate plaintext messages is kind of interesting, but I'm thinking of opposing it on the same grounds. What do you think ?

Linguistics: At my house, we have to buy a new bottle of ketchup almost every week. Would you say

• we eat a bottle of ketchup a week, or
• we drink a bottle of ketchup a week

? ( "Why is ketchup also called catsup?" article by Michael Quinion http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-ket2.htm )

For information on how to build your very own feedback form, look at test_sendmail.html

[FIXME: read http://rdrop.com/tools/www/mailform/mailform-doc.html ]

"How To Use E-mail Effectively" http://www.getmoredone.com/tips5.html

privacy policy

I hate spam, probably more than you do.

I have never sold anyone's email address.
I have never signed anyone up for any mailing lists.
I have never sent anyone spam (unsolicited commercial email).

And I never intend to.

If you send me a piece of email that I think is particularly interesting and useful to the general public, I may post it on this web site. I will try to give a correct attribution.

If I quote something from you on my web site, I will remove any "at signs" ("little snails") to make it more difficult for spammers to harvest your email address. (I apologize to anyone whose address was harvested from my pages before the day I started deleting "at signs".).

If you don't want me to put your stuff on my web site, please tell me and I'll take it down as soon as possible.

If you find on my web site a quote of something you or someone else said, but that quote was not attributed or mis-attributed, please tell me and I'll fix the attribution as soon as possible.

later ...

I'm starting to shift from email and static web pages to wiki. Perhaps you could leave me a note at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DavidCary or http://theconnexion.net/compass/index.php/User:DavidCary .

This page started 1997-11-19 by David Cary and has backlinks

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