EnglishImportant (in brief)

Follow these rules, if you have never (or very rarely) sent e-mail to me, or if you are uncertain whether or not I received your earlier message:

  1. Copy the following text into the "Subject:" line of the mail: asWQe10fv
  2. Do not send mail formatted in HTML. Send only plain ASCII text!
  3. Send mail to E-mail address.

If you do not comply with these rules, there's no guarantee whatsoever that your e-mail will actually reach me!

Why? Read on...

GermanWichtig (in Kürze)

Befolgen Sie diese Regeln, wenn Sie mir noch nie (oder sehr selten) E-Mail geschrieben haben, oder wenn Sie Sich nicht sicher sind, ob ich eine frühere Nachricht von Ihnen erhalten habe:

  1. Kopieren Sie den folgenden Text in die "Betreff:" bzw. "Subject:" Zeile Ihrer Mail: asWQe10fv
  2. Senden Sie mir keine HTML-formatierte Mail. Senden Sie nur einfachen Text.
  3. Senden Sie Ihre Mail an E-mail
 	address.

Wenn Sie Sich nicht an diese Regeln halten, dann gibt es keine Garantie dafür, daß Ihre E-Mail mich wirklich erreicht!

Warum? Lesen Sie weiter... (Sorry, nur auf Englisch)

Important warning!

The amount of unsolicited commercial junk mails ("SPAM") has increased dramatically. At the time of writing I receive typically 1500 spam mails per week, which is about ten times more than legitimate e-mail! About two thirds of these mails make it past the system-wide filters into my own filters, and these are documented in the graphs below. I have implemented e-mail filters to prevent myself from being flooded by spam. Therefore, do not send any message to me which is formatted in HTML! Moreover, MS-Word documents are not acceptable, because they may contain viruses. Use PDF instead! Only plain ASCII e-mails will be accepted by my mail system. No, I will not make an exception for anybody. (See below for more info.)

Furthermore, if you have never before sent e-mail to me or you have done so very rarely, include the following text on the "Subject:" -line. The text will act as an e-mail password and make sure that your e-mail reaches my mailbox. Note that the system is case sensitive! If you did send mail to me, but you are not sure whether or not your mail has actually reached me, resend it with the password on the "Subject:" -line.

Current e-mail password: asWQe10fv.

If, and only if you understand and agree to the above, you are welcome to send e-mail to me to the following address:

E-mail address.

SPAM protection enabled

My spam filters are based on "procmail" and "SpamAssassin." The pages of Timo Salmi were of great help for establishing my filter system (Thank you for the invaluable pages!). If you want to know more, the following links are good starting points:

Why is HTML e-mail dangerous?

The most powerful mechanism for a spammer to verify the validity of his e-mail list is by simply cross-referencing his web server logs to the list. When the recipient HTML e-mail is opened, your mail program sends requests (<a href=...>) to the spammer's server in just the same way as if you'd accessed a regular web page. By this mechanism, you explicitly tell the spammer that you received his spam e-mail and that your e-mail address is in fact valid and in use.

The crux is that in most e-mail programs, one needs to click on a message first before one can mark it to be deleted (or move it into a special "junk" folder). However, just clicking the message will display it and thus send a message to the originator of the spam that your e-mail address is valid and in use.

Spam problem in pictures

Spam graph, absolute numbers

Spam graph, in per cent