The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I use different e-mail addresses for different services on the internet so that I can easily tell where spam is coming from. I just recently received one advocating some comic called The Norm at songfight@gemini6ice.com.

It mildly upsets me that I'm receicing spam via songfight now. So one of the following has happened:
1. The webmasters of Songfight either allowed this information to be forwarded to use out of their own love for "The Norm" or gave Songfighters' e-mail addresses out.
2. Some Songfight user decided to add the addresses of fellow members of this community to eir e-mailing list.
3. A spam-address-crawler has reached Songfight.

Anyone know anything about this? I'm kind of hoping that it's the last one, but I'm also hoping that Song Fight has not been infested by the venomous spiders yet.

Gemini6Ice wrote:songfight @ gemini6ice.com

Well, one way to invite it is to post a valid email address on a website.

misery loves company..........

[http://www.thenorm.com/main/savenorm.jpg]

Save the Norm comic strip from Eviction this Christmas

Cartoonist Michael Jantze termintated his contract with king features syndicate in September and comic strip fans everywhere are donating to keep theNorm.com alive and get Michael Jantze cartooning again. Due to overwhelming support, Michael has agreed to continue the Norm if we can reach the goal of 4,000 paid members to his site by January 1st. Fans are more than half way there, but still have a ways to go. Only you can save the Norm from disappearing forever.

Look around Michael's site. Enjoy his unique perspective on life and skilled cartooning. Become a supporter of the Norm by donating today. Download his catalog and purchase collections of his comic strip. Keep the Norm alive.

Visit theNorm.com

I'm sending you this note strictly as a fan of the Norm. I don't get a dime out of this, just the pleasure of knowing one of my favorite comic strips will continue on. If you don't want to donate, that's fine. Visit the Norm's site anyways. Look around and enjoy some free comic reading by a talented cartoonist.

Hope you have a good holidays,

Adam

Want to know more comic news?

[http://www.paradigmprint.com/campaigns/ ... ank001.gif]

I feel rather offended that I haven't received it. Like, what's wrong with me? (answers on a single sheet of A4 only)

Hey, I got that e-mail. Figured it was just some random spam though...

tell everyone you know to boycott thenorm.com

Hmm.. very interesting, I got the same spam today. It went to a spamtrap email address that only SF and Dumbrella admins should have access to.

there is no database of songfight entrants. your emails to fightmaster are preserved for one week (in case i screwed something up) and then deleted.

<b>as for this message board, you control your profile and the member list is publicly accessible.</b> anything other than that, if somebody got it from us then they stole it without our knowledge.

but i'll promise you that i have no intention of giving or selling anything related to songfight without complete and utter permission from the participants. not that i have such intention anyway, because i am a very lazy person. i'm just sayin'. if i did have the motivation to sell your stuff, i certainly wouldn't do so behind your back. by participating in songfight you are most definitely NOT agreeing to have your information distributed willy-nilly. we don't run that way, and consider those who do to be our nemeses.

i highly recommend that you give songfight administration the benefit of the doubt in situations like this, and don't jump to negative conclusions regarding our motivations and/or ethics. in my humble opinion, we have earned this consideration.

[update] I just received this spam as well, and it was sent to the email address in my Profile for this message board. I use specific addresses for each community i participate in. For this board it's "sfbb@johnorama.com". [/update]

jb

one look at the songfight homepage (and it's complete absence of any commercial banner ads, links, or ANYTHING unrelated to songfight) should lead any reasonable, intelligent person to deduce that the songfight admins had nothing to do with this.

i mean, if they won't sell ad space, why in the hell would you think they'd sell their user list?

Yeah, Occam's Razor. One need not theorize that emails had to be sold when they are listed in many people's profiles on this messageboard.

i'm not sure that someones just pulling emails off the open forum, as the email i received the spam from is not listed anywhere here in my profile. of course, the email i submit songs to fightmaster to wasn't the email i got spammed on either. but i'm sure the spam is news to the admins.

Mine's not listed on my profile and never has been. I suspect there's a hole in the forums software that's leaking this information. D'oh.

joshw wrote:Mine's not listed on my profile and never has been. I suspect there's a hole in the forums software that's leaking this information. D'oh.

pm or email me the address they spammed, so i can look for where it appears in the phpbb database. also, tell me where in the phpbb interface you put it.

I apologize if I unintentionally offended anybody. I thought it was best to include all possibilities (no matter the probability), and I should probably point out that I listed the possibilities in increasing likelihood. Of course, I'm a absolute nitwit to many of you for even considering the first a possibility.

The fightmasters are great people for putting so much of their time into this community. I'm just a highly untrusting person in general, and it shouldn't be taken personally to any extent.

Again, I'm sorry, and I'll go sit in the Song Fight Penalty Box with Norm now.

dude, you said penalty box....which means you're alright in my books.......of course, if by penalty box, you were attempting to be "dirty", then you're probably ok in a few books....



I never suspected the fightmaster crew...but I'm curious to see if I get one...

jb wrote:

joshw wrote:Mine's not listed on my profile and never has been. I suspect there's a hole in the forums software that's leaking this information. D'oh.

pm or email me the address they spammed, so i can look for where it appears in the phpbb database. also, tell me where in the phpbb interface you put it.

Man. aBOVE and beYOND.

i got the e-mail. since some of you are saying you received it an an e-mail address not associated with this message board, i am thinking maybe it came from e-mail addresses we used at the Dumbrella board. That non-SongFight part of that board was centered around comix, so it seems likely that it would be a target for this type of spam.

Um, it may be co-incidence or a post-modern joke, but has anyone noticed who our most recently registered member is?

j$

j$ wrote:Um, it may be co-incidence or a post-modern joke, but has anyone noticed who our most recently registered member is?

j$

mbeanis? I'm afraid I don't get the joke... or the connection..

songfight@

FightMaster sent the following email responding to this spam (he got another one today) to the sending address and to nicole@thenorm.com (who is apparently in charge of the fundraising effort).

To Whom it May Concern,

Your messages regarding The Norm have been received by many people in my
community. We do not appreciate your spam. We also do not appreciate your
stripping our email addresses from the Dumbrella forums.

I have received many complaints regarding this, by people who don't
understand how you got their email addresses. I do not appreciate being
put in this position.

There is nothing I or anyone can do to prevent this from happening in the
future, but you should know that this kind of behavior does not help your
cause. I for one have given to web comics in the past, but because of this
will make sure that The Norm is not among those who receive my donations.

Nicole, you are CC'ed on this message because you should know that this
spam is being sent out without permission of the people receiving it. I
don't know if this is with your knowledge or consent, but now you cannot
claim ignorance. I hope to see you address this issue, and soon, on your
Web site.

FM

FightMaster has received a reply from Nicole Jantz, the person handling fundraising for The Norm. She CC'ed fightmaster on an email to the person sending this spam, her message in part:

While I appreciate your enthusiasm and self-motivation, please don't send
any more emails regarding TheNorm.com. My present goal is to inform those
who already know the strip and love it to come to the site and donate, not
to recruit new readers.

I'm now receiving negative emails from people who feel they're receiving
Spam from us, and that's something I've worked hard to stay clear of.

I know your intentions are good, but let's just see where the chips fall.
Happy New Year!

I'm satisfied that this spam campaign was a case of an overzealous fan, and was perpetrated without the knowledge or consent of thenorm.com. So. There you go.

JB