Blue Security Reborn As Social Action Enabler 29
griswaldo writes "Wired News writes about the re-birth of the ill-fated Blue Security as a social action company. According to the article, founders of the former anti-spam company that made headlines after incurring the wrath of a Russian spam king have set up a company called Collactive that provides tools to organize grassroots action on political and social web sites. The article mentions a global warming initiative called WorldCoolers and, for the Slashdot YRO crowd, the Privacy Alert Network that kicked off by letting people comment on Homeland Security's latest crazy idea."
Finnaly, I can let the DHS know what I think (Score:2, Informative)
Congratulations! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Power to the people (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe this will bring user-generated sites to everyday folk. I can already envision my grandma telling me how many stories she Dugg, and all without even leaving her bridge game!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
In Korea only old people use Digg.
Re: (Score:1)
If you can't beat spam, add to it! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Once it's installed, the organizers can send alerts to users or update the software with scripts that know how to take particular actions, such as automatically filling in feedback forms on a politician's website. End users can also forward e-mail alerts to their friends, who have the option of installing the software themselves and joining the network."
"By picking a couple of issues that all Americans agree on, we can really rain holy privacy hellfire," Scannell said.
If you simply define spam as "unwanted commentary," a large, disruptive user base that does nothing but repeat itself could easily be placed in there.
Another problem is this: Dr. Smith disagrees with the movement being "addressed" by the Collactive users and wishes to comment. She/He should be able to offer feedback like anyone else, but if 537 near-duplicate comments fly in while she/he responds, then his/her comment is very likely to be either mass-deleted or simply overlooked.
The point is simply this: political debates should be won by the good arguments, and NOT by drowning the opposing side in a flood of automated replies. From where I'm sitting, this just looks like a hack of a piece of software trying to push a hack of an argument.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
In many cases, quantity is much more relevant than quality. A general rule of thumb is that for every 1 person who bothers to write & complain, there are ten people who feel the same way, but didn't.
If you want just one example of why this technique is effective, look no further than the effects Christian Conservatives have had on the FCC. Greater than 95% of complaints come from members of just two organizations who employ these carpet bombing techniques.
Government and bu
Congratulations. (Score:1)
I missed Blue Security in the headlines, but what these guys seem to be doing is pretty cool. Providing a way for people to send and receive information about issues they care about isn't really ahead of it's time technology-wise, but is definitely an appropriate and commendable use of technology.
I don't know how much hype comes from the word AJAX being thrown around, but if ever there was a place for it, I say they've found it. A niche, and a productive one at that.
Better luck this time, guys.
Funny story about chasing an idiot spammer? (Score:1)
Of course, the big fear is that
Collactive? (Score:2)
A mattter of perspective... (Score:1)
I guess after you get your ass handed to you by a Russian spam king, the DHS isn't all that scary.
can't beat = join (Score:2, Insightful)
In short: a spamming network. Oh the irony.
Re: (Score:1)
What about mail server ID? (Score:3, Insightful)
But what about whitelists for email servers? Maybe something similar to the DNS system, with propagating server lists. So, you register your server with your telco, wait an hour or two, and the thing is propagated. Registration should be free, but a mandatory delay of at least 10 minutes between registration should be there; the telcos are also free to check if somebody is registering tons of servers (maybe a limit would do). This allows emailservers to reject unknown ones along with all their mail, so spammers could no longer setup a room full of machines sending millions of emails a day, and spambots with their own SMTP servers are useless. Furthermore, if some trojan hijacks Outlook accounts for spamming, email servers could (a) introduce an one second delay, thereby limiting the max amount of emails per day while not overly hurting the user, (b) report when a whitelist server suddenly sends heaps of data, and the sending server is obliged to investigate this and warn clients that they are sending too much.
All of this requires no client changes, they are all server side updates.
How do you START it? (Score:2)
The whitelist solution is useless when 99.9999% of valid email servers are not yet on the whitelist, right? Because if you turned on whitelist filtering you'd just be blocking all mail. So no one will install and activate the filter until the vast majority of valid email senders *are* registered.
Now consider all
Re: (Score:2)
King's Pawn (Score:3, Insightful)
But is it too late for them to do anything but inspire a new generation of gulags?
Takes one to know one (Score:1)
> grassroots action on political and social web sites.
Well, an anti-spam company should know well how to generate spam.
Remember, it's not spam if it benefits you or a cause that's worthy to you.
Re: (Score:1)