Marxists Internet Archive
How to Avoid Spam.
Listed below are the main measures to avoid or reduce the amount
of junk mails you will receive:
- If you publish your MIA email address (also called an alias) on a page, disguise it so it cannot be easily harvested by spam bots (e.g. johnb[- @ -]marxists.org)!
- Never post your email address to public forums, newsgroups etc. - use your private email for that purpose
(if you have to)!
- Never respond to spam (not even requesting to be removed from a mailing list)!
- Do not open spam messages wherever possible and never click on the links in spam messages!
- If you have an email address that receives a very large amount of spam, consider replacing it with a new alias.
A recommended threshold is a maximum of 5 spam messages a day, no more!
- Never give out your login details to anyone!
But even when you follow our guidelines for using an alias and keeping it discreet, you will eventually start to receive spam. Here is what you must do. Every email application allows you to create folders:
- You must have a folder named “Good” and file all or almost all good emails in this folder when you have read them.
- You must have another folder called “Spam” and the email system will put all emails which it determines to be spam into it.
- Regularly check the contents of your spam folder, in case the system places messages in their erroneously, which need to be moved.
The spam filter uses a statistical method based on the contents of everyone’s spam and good folders to decide what is spam. So the system depends on everyone participating.
If you use an email application, such as Thunderbird, you can manipulate folders from there, so long as you make sure to “subscribe” to folders. But it may be easier to visit https://mail.marxists.org/