Abuse response [Was: RE: Yahoo Mail Update]

Tue Apr 15 14:55:14 UTC 2008

On Apr 15, 2008, at 10:31 AM, William Herrin wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 10:00 AM, Marshall Eubanks
> <tme at multicasttech.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Apr 15, 2008, at 9:43 AM, William Herrin wrote:
>>> That is one place that modern antispam efforts fall apart. It's the
>>> same problem that afflicts tech support in general. The problem  
>>> exists
>>> for the same reason that large-city McDonalds workers don't speak
>>> English: Anyone with sufficient clue to run an abuse desk is well
>>> qualified for more interesting, important and higher-paid work where
>>> they don't get yelled at all the time. Like administering mail  
>>> servers
>>> or writing mail software.
>>>
>>> There's a reason we pay garbage collectors a small fortune to do a  
>>> job
>>> that requires no skill whatsoever.
>>
>> Do you _know_ any garbage collectors ? I do, and I would disagree  
>> with both
>> clauses of that sentence.
>
> Marshall,
>
> No, but I know a few people who have (briefly) worked abuse desks and
> neither the tech support nor the McDonalds problem are difficult to
> observe.
>
> Without conceding the garbage collection issue, let me ask you
> directly: how do you propose to motivate qualified folks to keep
> working the abuse desk?

That is a good question. (I feel sure that many actually doing the job  
would opt for a rise in pay.)
Maybe certain jobs should become apprentice-like positions
that you need to get through to rise in a networking organization. I  
know that Craig Newmark (of Craig's List)
spends a couple of hours per day going through abuse complaints and  
user issues personally. I
haven't heard too many complaints about Craig's List, and it seems  
reasonable to suspect a connection there.
That has the advantage of being cheap to implement, in dollars if not  
in political capital.

Regards
Marshall

>
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>
> -- 
> William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com bill at herrin.us
> 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004