Now you tell me -- after I signed and returned it. But thanks anyway.

                                Bob Schuyler


At 11:39 AM 3/15/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello - hope this is not 'off-topic', but well-meaning email users might
>consider the message below (from our grad student list moderator).
>-Staffan
>
>***************************************************************************
> Staffan Peterson                              Phone: (812) 855-9544
> Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology        Fax: (812) 855-1864
> 9th and Fess Streets                          email: [log in to unmask]
> Bloomington, IN  47405  USA
>***************************************************************************
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 14:05:48 -0500 (EST)
>From: "AGSA: IU Anth Grad Student Assn." <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>Lately, AGSA has been getting a lot of email petitions coming through the
>pipeline and I though I have been warning the senders I thought I should
>speak to everybody.
>
>The first and foremost is the lack of any moderating force in these
>petitions.  You have no way to verify where these people are coming from
>and how their names were acquired.  No government anywhere, to my
>knowledge, actually accepts online petitions as legal documents.  This is
>not to say that a web-based petition, where you go to a site and sign it,
>is bad... really it's much better (see below).
>
>Secondly, and more insidiously, these email petitions are dangerous to
>email servers.  Most petitions of this sort where you are asked to return
>the 150th, 200th, etc. emails are really pranks.  Imagine every person who
>signs your petition sends it to 2 others.  What is 2 to the 150th power?
>It's equal to 1.43 x 10^45 (that's a 10 with 45 zeroes after it!).  There
>aren't that many people in the world, and when the emails do start coming
>back to you (because people will just send it in) it will be coming from
>so many places that it will clog your servers.  This is a good way for
>nogoodniks to get back at former bosses, enemies, or organizations they
>don't like.
>
>Thirdly, when these petitions don't work they discourage people.  We're
>all busy and we like to think that we are making some difference... so
>let's in ways that will work!
>
>This URL from Human Rights Education Associates has a succinct discussion
>about why email petitions are impractical and futile -
>
>http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/msg00130.html
>
>This URL is a site that provides online web petitions, a safer and more
>effective alternative.  Web petitions can collect IP-addresses and other
>info about signers, which makes them the much more likely bet when online
>petitions become legal documents.
>
>http://www.webpetitions.com/
>
>Please send this to anyone you think would be interested.
>
>
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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