Spamaliciousness. And the wonder of self-control.

October 12, 2008

I’ve been through some recent spam issues and have been banned by one hosting provider because people are sending me somewhere near 40,000 pieces of spam per day.

I don’t know why. I don’t understand how. I just know I’m getting A LOT of random email that I don’t want.

I won’t even say that I don’t deserve the email. Perhaps I made someone angry by saying that ADD is a fake diagnosis. Or my contention that all SUV-driving females are ill-equipped for this task. Or even that parts of Jamiaca Plain are unsuited for safe travel during the hours of 4PM and 9AM.

But what I’m up against is a flood of electronic data that continues to choke off the servers at my hosting company.

Be aware that hosting companies that only have one set of servers are running a bad system and should be avoided. And also be aware that some people (me) are suckers for a great deal, which is how some of these bad hosting companies draw in customers.

Nevertheless, the point of this little story is to tell you that I’ve moved my email address to gmail and now all that mail is coming through Google’s powerful servers. I watch as the spam builds up and then I delete all messages to give myself a feeling of accomplishment. And what I’ve started to do – as difficult as this might seem – is let the mail count build up continuously.

It’s a difficult process because all I want to do is have an empty email box. But Gmail doesn’t count spam toward your allotment of space, so you can allow the spam count to skyrocket.

As of 11:55AM on Sunday, the count in my box sits at 30,361. I’m going to let it go up to 500,000 before I delete it and then start the process all over again.

Maybe I’ll even do away with email communication for the month of November while I write my novel. That could let the spam bots settle down and allow my accounts – like bank accounts that are left dormant – to get all settled and clear again.

If you’ve got advice for me that doesn’t involve me going completely insane over spam, please share in the comments. Thanks!

More to come…