Red Cross collectors came to the door today. Normally when people knock on our door I just say no and close it. Because human contact is not easy. But today I actually went and got money and gave it to them. Just a little thing, but it's good to feel improvement like that. And to support a good cause of course.

But apart from that it has been a quiet Sunday. If you read my entry yesterday then you will know that I started a little war on Georg, the Austrian spammer. Well somewhat to my surprise he actually responded. So today's entry will be our little email exchange.

From : "Georg Ragyoczy" gr@tplus.at
Sent : Sunday, October 03, 2004 8:01:26 AM
To : boypumpkin@hotmail.com
Subject : Re: WEBMAIL from Plume Plume

hi plume !

do you really think i am a gb-spammer ?

race.at is a platform for musicians and bands
- the most of them newcomers and unknown artists -
we have over 200 artists and near 4000 music-titles.
i do my work for free to push this great musicians.

i made gb-entrys since years and get great contacts
to music-lovers and other musicians all around the world.

spamming as i see it is to have a program and made mass-entrys
with this program. i visit each site personally and sign the gb's
with my real name and site and sometimes with my real mailaddress.

i think your real hate against me is a over-reaction.

best wishes,
georg

To which I responded:

From: "plume ploomay" boypumpkin@hotmail.com
To: gr@tplus.at
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: WEBMAIL from Plume Plume

Hi Georg

Yes, I do think you're a gb-spammer.

Not only do I think so. I know so. Look, I can appreciate what you're
trying to do. I have tried signing guestbooks to get people to notice my site
too, once upon a time. And I'm a big music fan, so if your site is really about
promoting unknown/unsigned artists and you do that for free, well then I
sympathize with that. It sounds like a really good thing.

But, and this is a big but, you ARE spamming people's guestbooks. I have a
site that hasn't been updated since February 3rd 2003. Even though that
site hasn't been updated I still regularly get a message from you saying your
typical "fantastic site, respect, stay creative, greetings from vienna". I
actually thought you did have a bot doing it for you. But I guess you just
copy/paste your message.

I can see you have one basic message in English and then one in German for
german sites. And you leave exactly the same message every time. You have
left that damn message a hundred times in my guestbook at
plume.diaryland.com. Have you even once looked at my site? You obviously
don't look at people's sites, you just go there and leave you message and
then continue to the next guestbook. IT IS SPAMMING.

Can you imagine an internet without virus, without spyware, without spam?
I can't. We'll never have that. But spamming is wrong, and every time 1
spammer gets taken out the internet becomes a little better. I don't know
how serious Austria looks on spamming. I know that if you lived in Denmark
you would lose your internet connection, your site would most likely be
taken down and you could be facing criminal charges. Spamming is a serious
matter.

I'm sure you're a nice guy. I'm a music-lover myself. Why don't you just
change your guestbook methods? Why don't you actually look at the sites
you visit and leave some constructive criticism or personalized messages. Then you wouldn't be spamming. Then you would just be a normal person signing guestbooks like normal people do.
You said it yourself. "Mass entries". That is what you're doing when you
leave the exact same message over and over and over in hundreds of
guestbooks. Please stop.

I look forward to hearing what you think about all this. I'm still
considering whether I should report you or not. It shouldn't really be
necessary, I hope you can see my points.

*Plume

And then later that day...

From : "Georg Ragyoczy" gr@tplus.at
Sent : Sunday, October 03, 2004 2:12:00 PM
To : "plume ploomay" boypumpkin@hotmail.com
Subject : Re: WEBMAIL from Plume Plume

hi again !

in some cases you are right - in some you're not.

the problem of each unknown site is to get in contact with the public.
we are no major-label with a lot of money and a big promotion-machine
in the background.
so i try everything to let people know where they can find independent
music.

spamming is definately forbidden in austria as in the eu.
especially spamming by e-mails. i have not found the
same for gb-spamming...
i receive about 1000 spamming-mails each day...

ok - i will try to get more serious in visiting sites and guestbooks -
sometime i take the time to have a look what's interesting on the sites i
visit
and i think sites with music, lyrics and from authors are interested in all
kinds of artwork.
what i can't understand is your excessive hate against me.
you do not know me personally and what i try do do.

have a look on my personal site
http://members.eunet.at/ragy.theproject
and check out my work for music.

i am 45 year old and work in the independent music-business since years
and was one of the first who get a contract with akm + aume to provide music
leagl in the net and take care that the artists get their copyright paid.

best wishes,
georg

And that's where we are now. I'm considering what to do. Anyone have any thoughts? I guess Georg isn't all evil. He seems to think I hate him, which is kind of funny. I do hate spam though. But I guess I won't report him. Yet. If he really does change his guestbook ways then who knows, maybe he has learnt a valuable lesson. To not do drugs. Oh, and to not spam either. I can always report him later if he keeps signing my guestbook.

Yeah yeah. It's only rock and roll but I like it. You can see our friend Georg on this page by the way. In case you wondered.

Fin.

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