No, the most self-defeating propaganda campaign ever (well, in recent history) was the newbie dorkwad who posted a supplication to MetaTalk a couple of hours ago about knowing that self-linking was bad, but maybe we'd take a look at his reputation-tracking site and post it to the blue for him. That was funny. My irony meter is still all bruised and sore and stuff. I really wish Matt had left that up. I wonder if he got banned?

Aw, loqman! I always miss the good stuff.

So, dodgy, who's the genius that sent the spam?

The original quote is from a senator from California, Debra Bowen (see fourth paragraph).

Here's an article about it on Boycott Watch.

Someone out there has a copy of the e-mail I got.

I like how postings on Google Groups are presented as conclusive proof.

wow. i love the flash tour on ikarma. you just know the dark complected bearded sunglassed dudes always have low ikarma. i wish matt wasn't such a delete-happy dorkwad.

Wow that ikarma things is hilariously lame. I can just imagine the meeting where they came up with that idea.
"Hey, you know how the eBay rating system means no ever gets ripped off ever?"
"Yeah, it's so cool"
"Well why don't we create a website that does the same thing for everyone in the entire world!"
"You're a genius!"

And why do I get the feeling it'll be overrun by teenage girls awarding each other gold stars?

So, yeah, iKarma sends out one of those validate yr account emails...but the signup form doesn't require an email address. So I registered the I_have_a_really_big_penis username, but didn't provide an email...now that name is out of commission though nobody will ever actually use it. The guess The Hedgehog is out of luck.

So then I registered I_have_a_really_really_big_penis and provided an email address. The form accepted those 32 characters no problem. I get my confirmation email (in my spam box) and click it...only to find out my username is "I_have_a_really_really_bi". Those fucktards, why didn't they tell me I only get 25 characters? I could have compensated somehow.

Now I'm gonna get all this karma from the swings-both-ways crowd, and I won't know how to spend it. And how many times will I have to answer the question "You have a really bi what?" How many times I ask you!?

I just got this:

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATOR Debra Bowen is Quoted as Saying:

"Trusting Microsoft to protect computer users from spam is
like putting telemarketers in charge of the do-not-call list."

----- ---- --- -- - -
MICROSOFT CRITICIZES SPAMMERS AND SPAMS THEMSELVES?

Do You Feel It Is OK for the World's Largest Software Monopoly
to Spam and Nobody Else? You Make the Decision...

Shouldn't the Largest Monopoly Worldwide be Setting an Example?

-> Remember MICROSOFT Sends SPAM For Thousands of Companies.

-> Just Because The Words "Microsoft" Aren't In The Spam, It
-> Doesn't Mean They Don't Profit a Fortune in $$$ From Their
-> BCentral Listbuilder Spam For Hire Email Spamming Service.

----- ---- --- -- - -
[QUOTES 11 to 35 of 750 COMPLAINTS on MICROSOFT'S SPAMMING]

All Archived for Public Viewing on Google Groups Newsgroups:
news.admin.net.abuse.email & Listserv SPAM-L Mailing List


11- "Microsoft is going to spam no matter what anyone says.
The whole "Master suppression list" is a farce. All it
does is keep the most vocal complainers quiet by not
sending any spam to them. Microsoft DOES NOT care what
people want or don't want." - Zeh Suna

12- "there is a creditability problem when Microsoft keeps
spamming after numerous persons have pointed out there
is an abuse problem especially when there is a Master
suppression list." - Richard

13- "My work mailbox has been pretty obscure, so it gets
very little spam generally, and this is the first time
I have ever been spammed at work by an organization
that would be considered "legitimate" by some." - Errol

14- "I was getting an East Coast edition of some Microsoft
newsletter at a nonexistent mail address on a placeholder
website that can't send mail or browse, isn't indexed,
and resides on a BSD box. I don't know where they get
those addresses."
- John Nagle

15- "Just got this from Microsoft themselves. I never
registered with them without a plus-style trap box
(should be tygris+ms@...) so this looks like to be a
Washington-State Law violation. Anyone else get this?
(Also looks like direct to MX spamming, too)"
- Daniel S. Riley

16- "Microsoft haven't been very good about honoring their
commitments to clean up their act. I'd say an RBL is
in their future."
- Jay

17- "Microsoft was even sending spam to a domain I own that
just has a placeholder web page with no contact
information. It can't send mail or web browse at all.
Yet Microsoft spammed it."
- John Nagle

18- "I bounce everything from newswire.microsoft.com. A few
months ago, they started adding the news. to it, so I
bounce that too."
- Nick Nicholas

19- "There's two ways to LART Micro$haft, fusion warheads
(too destructive to all that nice lumber), and using
MacOS/LINUX/BeOS..."
- Jason Crowell

20- "I HAD subscribed to about three of their lists,
primarily developer stuff, but when they spammed madly
about 6 - 8 months ago, I went through our contacts
here at IU and got a PR guy, and raised hell."
- Ron

21- "Where is Microsoft getting these email addresses? Are
they buying them from other companies? Are they
stealing them with stream sniffers? (They write the
"TO" address in all uppercase.)"
- Blornx

22- "Microsoft newswire is still spamming. Some of us at
work got one today for Publisher"
- Kelly Striker Price

23- "Microsoft has recently been sending me the German
language edition of the Microsoft Internet Newsletter.
I never signed up for anything from Microsoft, and
certainly not auf Deutsch. Their unsubscribe procedure
doesn't give any feedback."
- Dan Riley

24- "My work email account doesn't get spam, was never given
to Microsoft, and we are not registered users of
Publisher -- we don't even own it or use it"
- Blornx

25- "Microsoft is still Microsoft. following are my spam
report and Microsoft's reply. Gee, how did this get to
be so predictable, how did I know Microsoft's reply
would say that they would take no action towards
reducing their cooperation with this spammer."
- Norman Diamond

26- "Microsoft got lots of press for Microsoft's pretense of
opposing spammers, but all of that is just more lies.
Microsoft will continue cooperating with Microsoft's
spam partners, redirecting from g.msn.com to
choice-is-yours.com"
- Darwin

27- "There's no other way to stop receiving their spam...
they won't remove you, and there's no way to LART
Microsoft."
- John Nagle

28- "It was the same with me when I complained to Microsoft
about their BCentral counters that were being largely
used in spams. They always answered with the "this mail
did not come from Microsoft" boiler plate, and rarely
wrote back to the followups."
- Darwin
29- "I still get spam from/implicating bcentral.com. I
complain through spamcop. Nothing happens."
- Bj

30- "Microsoft has been known to send spam to people who do
not use their junk and have never requested any mail,
alerting these uninterested non-customers to the
availability of patches to fix problems with MS
products."
- Stinky

31- "One of the best spams actually from M$ was the Y2K spam
run. I didn't own a single PC at the time yet I received
this email several times. Go figure."
- Norman

32- "It's easier to just block them. I can't imagine getting
anything, ever, from Microsoft by email"
- Magenta Sky

33- "Now I just got off the telephone with Mike at Microsoft
and he apparently lied to me because I just recieved a
new spam from them"
- Jay

34- "What does it take to stop the spam from Microsoft when
MAPS sits on their hands?"
- Mark Ferguson

35- "Considering how much Microsoft spams, that would be funny
if I weren't sure they know perfectly well they'll be
breaking the law the moment it passes, and just don't care.
And why should they? It's not like the law applies to them."
- Magenta Sky


----- ---- --- -- - -
[SPAMIS: Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam]
[Part 37 of 178] - SPAMIS - PO BOX 1259 - SEATTLE, WA 98101 - USA

Here's the header:

From: contact@spamis.org
Subject: Quote From California Legislator Debora Bowen About Microsoft
Date: August 6, 2005 6:22:36 AM EDT (CA)
To: patrick@musicsolutions.ca
Return-Path:
Delivery-Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 17:33:26 -0400
Received: from [200.124.36.206] (helo=red-200-124-36-206.manquehue.net) by mx.perfora.net with ESMTP (Nemesis), id 0MKv6A-1E1WIB3ILH-0002L2 for patrick@musicsolutions.ca; Sat, 06 Aug 2005 17:33:19 -0400
Received: (from fjy73alto@localhost) by q646-plugging307.bi876ic.spamis.info (6.94.48/5.35.16) id ree99POO50g0573080; Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:27:36 -0300 GMT
X-Message-Info: KRoyIYD910smFRT12OxyrIF631SkW94YPS20E020vv06Y
X-Authentication-Warning: qs68-collegial1.sj1uc.spamis.org: pg07taoist set sender to contact@spamis.com using -j
Mime-Version: 1.0
Message-Id:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--397693826900403623"
Envelope-To: patrick@musicsolutions.ca

That's a new one.