Email is an open standard, or several standards, as well as being many other things, such as a means of communication. Something that people might consider from time to time is “Why there is so much unsolicited bulk email?”, although for some people the answer is obvious. Others might not ever ask themselves that question, even if they use email, because they believe the spam problem has been beaten, but it hasn’t, and it is costing email providers and society a lot of money. I have been thinking about this issue myself recently, and on and off for a while, and I have some thoughts about it. While I have neither come up with a means for ending all spam, nor decided that the current email system should be abandoned, I do have a collection of thoughts which help me frame the issue and might help other people in some way.
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