EDITOR’S LETTER

Are you like me where you log on to your computer every morning and want to scream and break things? No? Then you are lucky. Unless I have a particularly busy day with tons of back and forth emailing, honestly no less than 80% of my inbox receives SPAM and viruses throughout the day.EDITOR’S LETTER

Are you like me where you log on to your computer every morning and want to scream and break things? No? Then you are lucky. Unless I have a particularly busy day with tons of back and forth emailing, honestly no less than 80% of my inbox receives SPAM and viruses throughout the day. NO LIE! To say that I’m sick of it would be an understatement. The time and bandwidth (not to mention money) wasted on spam and viruses when you add up all of the recipients’ time and effort is staggering. I figure I waste up to two hours a week deleting emails, blocking addresses, and waiting for the garbage to download. And in all honesty, I would say that slightly more than half of the spam and viruses I receive are NOT adult in nature.

Then you have all of the numerous hacking attempts going on everywhere. Nowadays, operating your system without a firewall and virus protection would be akin I would think to having unprotected sex with prostitutes in a third-world country and then sharing needles and a smoke afterwards. It’s a fricking crapshoot! My firewall picks up several intrusions daily, and I’ve started developing a shit-list of IP addresses a mile long. Time permitting I’ll eventually be doing a “who’s who,” and finding out who truly needs to get a life out there. My advice to those hackers that find what is on my computer so gosh darn interesting (hell, why stop with only the hackers?) and to all the virus writers and spammers as well… go join a bowling league, take up sculpture, find a date, overdose on paint thinner, do SOMETHING other than bring the rest of us down, please. Short of prosecuting and public caning of the perpetrators responsible, I’ve got a few suggestions to the “powers that be” to help save the world a little:

1. It is my understanding that 40,000+ spam emails a day are forwarded to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in the hopes that something will be done. I personally have forwarded no fewer than 100 messages to the uce@ftc.gov address over the past year, and have STILL yet to get a response. In my opinion this isn’t working. I don’t respond to spammers with pithy messages, or to get on their “don’t send” list anymore (yeah, THAT works). Anything that lets a spammer know that a particular address is ‘alive’ is bad. I will gladly pay a fee to any organization that can ensure that spammers will leave me alone, and provide a list of home addresses of the offenders so that I can forward my physical junk mail to them.

2. Note to everyone who likes to hit “reply all” or send out emails with everyone’s address (with the exception of interoffice messages) in the “To” or “CC” box… PLEASE DON’T DO IT! Why are you sharing my address with everyone? It’s amazing how many spam lists I must be on just from these occurrences alone!

3. Blocking email addresses should be as simple as one click… not a series. It gets annoying going through all of the steps to make sure that all addresses every day are blocked and/or zapped from the server before they reach my inbox. But then of course, it’s either that or just deal with the spam. Do you notice though, that for each spam list you seem to “remove” yourself from, you’ll appear on two more? Strange how that happens…

Recently a company called Cloudmark developed “SpamNet”… a free downloadable product to help with point number three above. You can check out the Beta version at http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2144-10122008.html. Cloudmark’s SpamNet is an anti-spam tool that works with Microsoft Outlook on Windows 2000 or XP, and only on POP3 email… for now.

Simply put, SpamNet has a database of known spam email addresses on its server at Cloudmark, and it compares all incoming messages and matches headers and other “spammy” things within the message. Of course the possibility of false positives can occur, and considering that many of us work in porn, the chances of that happening and missing out on important or needed messages is quite possibly a lot higher, than say if you are a housewife that uses her computer exclusively for Amazon and Ebay.

But, with an alleged 75% filtering success rate in identifying spam and moving it to a separate folder, I suppose it’s better than nothing. Once a certain message gets enough complaints or block requests, it’s then added to the SpamNet database. Beware though, SpamNet not only filters your emails, but it also adds a “block” and “unblock” button to your Outlook toolbar (if you are the sort that hates that type of thing). But alas, I have decided to pass on SpamNet for now, given that I only use Outlook Express, and with the negative comments outweighing the positive ones on the ZDNet site, I would be reluctant to download it anyway. It’s hard to win sometimes…

In the week’s issue:

· Attorney Larry Walters from FreeSpeechLaw.com is back with another thought-provoking and insightful legal update for June in Legal Briefs. Like May, June was a very busy month in the courts with the “virtual” child porn law, online gambling and escort sites issues topping the list. If you are new to YNOTNews, be sure to check out Larry’s legal update every month to stay abreast of all the important issues impacting webmasters worldwide. Be prepared!

· Next up, regular YNOTNews columnist Bill Adler from CyberScrub returns with “’Delete’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Erase’” in Webmaster Info. His offering for the month takes a simple concept and goes into detail what many of us might already understand, but often times don’t want to think about. That embarrassing love letter that you “deleted?” It’s still in there… somewhere! Learn more about what goes on “inside” your computer in Bill’s columns!

· Then, in Women On The Web, Cathedra from 4BigCash.com is back with part two of “Opening Up To Porn.” Like many other young marketers in our industry, perhaps you are female, in your early 20’s, and were unsure of taking the plunge into the world of the adult Internet. What would the friends and family think? Were you intimidated by the large guy – girl ratio in the biz… or was that a major plus for you? Maybe Cathedra’s experience mirrors yours…

· This week’s In The Spotlight guest is Steven Z. from SexCrawlers.com. I had the pleasure of meeting Steven at the last Internext and see firsthand a little of what makes this guy tick. Check out his interesting background, and where he stands now in the adult Internet!

· In Search Engine Tips, we have new YNOT author Lee Traupel from Intelective Communications with, “Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths.” New to YNOT but certainly not new to marketing, Lee has been involved in marketing for over 20 years primarily in the mainstream Internet. Always great to have contributions from those willing to cross over into both the mainstream and adult venues.

· Then, in Amateur Chatter it’s, “Adult Models Having a Tough Time in the Industry” from “Wild Bill” Slevin at AdultxModels.com. Are you a model looking to work in the adult Internet, but are not sure who is on the “up and up?” Unfortunately, models are often mistreated and even victimized, and Bill offers some tips on how to protect yourself as well as a pretty unique service for models and producers.

Just a reminder here that the West Coast Webmasters conference is right around the corner and YNOTNews is still accepting requests to cover the seminars in the form of a write up in exchange for free advertising. There have already been a few requests, but please hit me up at jay@ynotmasters.com for more details. Unfortunately, YNOT will not be attending this event due to other obligations, but you can definitely catch us at Internext in Hollywood, Florida.

In closing, it’s amazing how revitalizing it can be to actually get out of your chair from time to time and get out and socialize with your peers during the day whether it be lunch, a game of golf, an office visit, or whatever. Those of you who work at home I’m sure can relate to what I’m talking about. I’d like to thank the people at Epoch for providing me with a very pleasant diversion recently with lunch and a tour of their amazing facility. That should keep me going for at least the next several weeks until I develop cabin fever again…

Enjoy this issue! — LAJ

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters and can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.