Comment Re:How does this prevent spam? (Score 1) 264
I think this system will work - but with a slight modification. Hopefully, what Yahoo/AOL are now taking is a first step towards setting up a system that completely weeds out spam, atleast on their systems.
1. Economic model: The system should allow the user (me) to block any message from someone who is not on my contact list, unless the person trying to contact me is willing to pay me a certain fee that I decide (AOL/Yahoo can get a cut in this fee). With this system, if I can set the fee to $2, it should keep out almost all the spammers and still allow my long lost friends to contact me. It might be OK if Yahoo/AOL keeps all of the $2 for themselves, since in a year, a typical user might get in touch with mabbe 10 other people, without being able to contact them via any other channel (if you can contact someone via the phone, you can exchange email addresses contact information to your addressbooks)
2. Simple challenge-response model: The system should allow me to create single-use tokens (or a password) that I can hand out with my email address (say, printed on my visiting card). Anyone who has one of these tokens and my email address can send me a mail. I can create 100 of these tokens before hand and give them out to people I meet personally along with the email ID. That way, all the 50 people I meet in a conference can contact me without having to shell out $100 collectively (if this is implemented in cojunction with the previous method).
1. Economic model: The system should allow the user (me) to block any message from someone who is not on my contact list, unless the person trying to contact me is willing to pay me a certain fee that I decide (AOL/Yahoo can get a cut in this fee). With this system, if I can set the fee to $2, it should keep out almost all the spammers and still allow my long lost friends to contact me. It might be OK if Yahoo/AOL keeps all of the $2 for themselves, since in a year, a typical user might get in touch with mabbe 10 other people, without being able to contact them via any other channel (if you can contact someone via the phone, you can exchange email addresses contact information to your addressbooks)
2. Simple challenge-response model: The system should allow me to create single-use tokens (or a password) that I can hand out with my email address (say, printed on my visiting card). Anyone who has one of these tokens and my email address can send me a mail. I can create 100 of these tokens before hand and give them out to people I meet personally along with the email ID. That way, all the 50 people I meet in a conference can contact me without having to shell out $100 collectively (if this is implemented in cojunction with the previous method).
