Pat McGregor
ABSTRACT
Being an electronic postmaster requires diligence, knowledge of mailing systems on many mail networks and host operating systems, and the ability to sit in front of a workstation, trying to decipher bounced mail hearders, for long hours every week.
It also requires that the postmasters be scrupulously ethical about the confidentiality of the mail that passes in front of them, despite the fact that sometimes in order to clear up a mail problem the text of the message comes up on the screen.
This paper explores some strategies used by campus postmasters on several campuses, and discusses some relevant issues of security, ethics and responsible behavior.
- 1.Ema-Lynne Bogue, a doctoral candidate in Social Work at the University of Michigan, and a SPSSx consultant, did all the SPSSx programming. She also taught me how to interpret the results, helped me pinpoint places to explore further, and encouraged me to learn a great deal about statistics while doing this project.Google Scholar
- 2.Text in this paper is defined to be the content of the message; the information that the user is transmitting.Google Scholar
- 3.Postmasters sometimes see messages in which the headers have been so thoroughly mangled that the origins are completely mysterious. For this reason, by the way, it's a good idea to include your name and electronic mail address at the end of your message, so that your recipient will know what you think your address is in case of problems.Google Scholar
- 4.Or, as another put it, "Users put the most astonishing thinks in electronic mail, and assume that nobody will ever see it. It never fails to amaze me the things that people to say to each other over electronic mail that they probably don't say to each other in the bextroom."Google Scholar
- 5.For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the "smiley face" in electronic communications, turn the page sideways. The ) is a mouth.Google Scholar
- 6.One anecdote is particularly telling. To quote the respondent: {The story starts with a description of a bug in a miler that left a number of messages in the postmaster's queue. The respondent describes his usual practice of reading only the first 30 lines, since usually those 30 lines are only header material.}Google Scholar
- 7.One postmaster called these trapped messages "bounce-ograms".Google Scholar
- 8.Not all respondents made comments, of course, which is why sometimes the numbers in these sections dealing with commentary don't always add up.Google Scholar
- 9.Mailing lists are deemed for the purposes of this paper to be public or semi-public lists or digests, such as Info- IBMPC, INTER-L, or other such public discussions. Private mailing lists, such as those created by individual users and which are not open for the public to join, are not included.Google Scholar
- 10.Electronic Communications Privacy Act.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Averting one's eyes: ethical approaches to postmastering
Recommendations
New filtering approaches for phishing email
EU-Funded ICT Research on Trust and SecurityPhishing emails usually contain a message from a credible looking source requesting a user to click a link to a website where she/he is asked to enter a password or other confidential information. Most phishing emails aim at withdrawing money from ...
Amazon's One-Click Patent Loses Its Teeth
The US Federal Circuit court of appeals has dissolved the preliminary injunction that for several years kept barnesandnoble.com from offering its internet customers the one-click shopping that Amazon.com offers. The one-click patent, one of the most ...
Comments