Mail senders' address extraction

[Robert]

Tim wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 17:58 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote:
>> I hope this is not the Tim who makes it clear that he is not reachable
>> through his return address. Someday I need to share my rant about
>> people who have unlisted telephone numbers. 
> 
> That would be me.  But I am not "uncontactable".  I can be reached on
> the list.  I don't really expect personal mail on here, but on the rare
> chance someone wants a personal response from me, they can request it.
> I have conversed with some people directly, in the past.  Though there'd
> have to be a good reason for me to want to respond, that way.
> 
> My own, and other's, past experiences have shown, however, that many who
> send private mail to list members only do so to get away with behaving
> in a manner that they wouldn't dare do so in front of an audience.  I
> tend to reply to such messages back on the list, with full quoting.
> 
> Those who know me outside of mailing lists have no problems contacting
> me.  I am listed in phone directories, and other internet places.  And
> with a modicum of effort, it's usually not to hard to work out who
> someone is on a mailing list, even when they use it semi-anonymously.
> 
> I don't list personal contact details in list mail, because there is no
> way to avoid it being harvested.  At least if it's only provided
> directly to someone, there's less chance of abuse.  Temporary addresses
> can be created too, should someone have a pressing need to work through
> something.
> 
> I understand your point about unlisted numbers, I've struck that myself.
> And that's the sort of point I was making about Robert being impossible
> to contact.  
> 
> Fair enough if he doesn't want strangers off the list contacting him, I
> feel the same.  But to filter out *all* mail from anywhere other than
> some predefined sources is madness.  You won't know to unblock someone
> that you'd want to be able to reach you.  They've no way of arranging
> it.
> 
> I only take that ruthless approach with the mailing list, by posting
> from another address.  My other contact methods aren't over zealously
> guarded.
> 
> 

Having ignored your unsolicited opinion, I must report that it certainly 
is nice to be able to tell at a glance when someone sends me a REAL 
email.  Plucking the names from my Inbox was only an exercise in piped 
grep, sed, tr, sort and awk commands.

You might do well to give a bit of thought your choice of words. There 
is always a chance that there is someone, somewhere whose lifestyle does 
not fit your pattern, yet who is not a raving madman!
I suppose that if I was a boy/young man, I would probably want to leave 
the door open to any new acquaintances.  That's the way my 
great-granddaughters operate and looking back, I probably did too.  But 
the fact is, I'm a lot more interested these days in whether friends 
I've made over years are still on the green side of the grass and what 
kind of aches they have today and how their offspring are doing.

So, as of 0246 UDT yesterday I am allowing mail from my banks, mailing 
lists, personal friends and some on-line acquaintances -- about 100 or 
so addresses in all -- to accumulate on this machine.  I don't need the 
other crap.