SPAM and Courtesy

[NW Mailing List]

An additional observation for the times. We seem to be in an era that we don’t take time to listen. Look at the “interviews” we see on the tubes. In your face, get louder and talk over the others. What happened to the knack of good conversation? A victim of the it’s all about “me” times?

We need to remember this site is an outlet for those that want to know more about the N&W, Virginian and NS rail. Plus, we get to learn so much from our rail veterans and those that keep the group going by sharing their experiences. Let’s keep the site going and enjoy our passion for the good times we have around the old iron horse. If my comments offend, my apologies’. Maybe we all need to take a deep breath and get a cup of coffee. In the bigger picture, this really is not the most important thing each of us have to deal with.
Howard Leedy
Bluefield, WV

From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 8:41 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: SPAM and Courtesy

So far, I wouldn't call this a stellar week on what is usually a friendly and useful list.

A member is trying to tap into the vast knowledge that is collected in this group, to ID some locations in a video he wants to maintain control of. He thought sharing it via ubiquitous YouTube would be the best way to reach members with a common platform. But negotiating the pitfalls of access control didn't work. Instead of offering suggestions on how to fix the problem or other sharing sites that might work, he was yelled at multiple times, "It's private. What a waste of time!" Wonder if he'll try again?

Then we received a message from someone whose account was hacked and used to send spam far and wide. It is good to question the validity of a questionable link, but PLEASE don't include the link in the message. All that does is continue to perpetuate it across the internet, as it is shared across systems and subscribers and for some, take it out of the context of the original spam message.

In any case, if you aren't sure about a link, DON'T CLICK IT! If you really want to confirm if it is legitimate, email the sender directly and ask if the message is safe and correct. More often that not, when there are multiple recipients along with this list, someone's account was compromised and their entire list of contacts was added to the spam message. Probably the best course is to just move along and let the moderators purge the message.

Have a great rest of the week.

Bruce in Blacksburg
Virginia Tech Webmaster

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