Category: Rant

Micro Rant

If you’re new to the project, don’t start telling me that the way I’m doing something isn’t automatic enough and I should just tell our translators that they should do this, this, and ths so that we can automate more of our process. I’ve been through 7 previous rounds of sending stuff off to the translators and dealing what they sent back, and it’s hard enough to get them to remember the corrective action report you sent them the last time, never mind getting them to use 100% consistent file names.

That is all.

Why are spammers such assholes?

Ok, spammers are lowlife lying scumbag thieves. That much is a given, and it’s not exactly news. So why am I upset? Well, because a spam got through my filters. And not just any spam, but a spam advocating a cause I support – helping the UCC get their commercial on the air in spite of anti-gay backlash from CBS and NBC. And to make it worse, it went to one of my role accounts, not my normal account. I occassionally post to usenet with this role account, but almost always just to groups that are local to that role, although sometimes I use it to post to other newsgroups in the region or to the news.admin groups. I never have, and I never will, use this email address to sign up for newsletter or ask for information – that would kill the very reason for having role account.

I immediately fired off a complaint, pointing out that before I got the spam I was supporting the cause, but now that they’ve descended to spam I wasn’t. No response, except a few days later I got another spam. This time I said what I really thought.

What followed was the usual dance of denials, lies, evasions, and general scumbaggery that anybody who has talked to a spammer is all too familiar with.
Some highlights:

If your name wound up on our list without your consent it was assuredly not due to anything intentional, such as harvesting.

Bullshit.

And by the way, a courteous note would have done just as well.

My experience suggests not.

So why am I upset? It’s just business as usual for a spammer, right? Well, except this one professes to be a non-demoninational religious organization, and I sort of expect them to have a moral code. I’m naive that way.