Of course no one can condone the public posting of a private message,
and I certainly don't.  But I can't help being amused at seeing Caroline
Nachman and SquareNote cast in the role of victim--and on the listowners'
list, of all places!  She and her associates are shamelessly cynical
marketers who have built an entire promotional strategy around the blind
spot that many listowners have about using .sig files for advertising, and
they have used this strategy for at least a year to victimize subscribers
on dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lists.
 
   The gimmick is to post a one-line, generally topical query, so that the
.sig file is prominently displayed.  (The "free software" is, of course,
crippleware bait for the commercial version.)  What is so insidious about
this is that other subscribers go to some effort to answer these "queries"
in good faith, not realizing that it's all a game, and as a result
everyone's time is wasted.
 
   What policy one chooses to adopt toward this is up to each listowner,
of course.  Those who choose to filter will be glad to know that Nachman
and her associates' addresses have the extension "@sqn.com," though I've
been told that in response to such efforts SquareNote has recently begun
advertising to hire people to invade lists on its behalf.  In any case,
more information about this promotional campaign (including the havoc it
wreaked on Usenet before SquareNote expanded its tactics to lists), may be
found by doing a search for "SquareNote" on DejaNews and in the archives
of SPAM-L.
 
Patrick Leary
listowner, SHARP-L and VICTORIA
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