There's Spam, Then There's Just Crap

from the don't-you-have-work-to-do dept

As expected, Bill Gates' prediction about the death of spam isn't going to come true. Spam still represents a big problem, with one recent survey saying spam still accounts for 16% of business email -- and that's after it's run through filters. What's a little more striking, though, is that just 15 percent of email is considered "critical", though 38 percent was deemed "important, but not critical". This isn't surprising, given previous stories along similar lines, but just shows that while spam dominates the headlines, it's not the only problem with email these days. Being inundated by useless messages can reduce the overall usefulness of email as well -- so we're waiting for a pointless-message filter to install alongside the spam-catcher.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Lucas, 24 Jan 2006 @ 2:59pm

    One of my favorites...

    I wish I had a filter to filter out all the times someone emails me to tell me they are going to call me to talk about something... or some kind of voice message filter to filter the times people call me to tell me they emailed me something.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Dale, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:42pm

    Re: One of my favorites...

    Yeah. I agree. In fact, if you'll give me your number, your email address, and your fax number, I'd like to call you to let you know I'm going to email you about a fax I'm going to send you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Andrew Wilson, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:43pm

    Re: One of my favorites...

    A phone call to say they've sent you an email isn't waste of time if they're concerned that your spam filter might eat the email.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:50pm

    Re: Carlo

    dude. got anything useful to say in this? i mean, thanks for the numbers and all, but...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Rikko, 24 Jan 2006 @ 4:08pm

    Re: Carlo

    Wasn't his point fairly obvious?

    I'm not going to spell it out for you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Lil' Conner, 24 Jan 2006 @ 5:07pm

    Re: Carlo

    I wish there was a way to filter out threds that suck.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.