You get these fax messages because somebody is using an internet
broadcaster to send spam mail and faxes, perhaps the same person who has
been annoying this list (well, me; I guess I can't speak for everybody)
with sex-related messages.  Probably erroneously, the reports of faxes
having been sent are themselves being sent as e-mail.  The difficulty is
that the true source of these messages is concealed, so that we as list
members have no way either sending them back or complaining to an
appropriate person about them.  If this list were managed (that is, if
some live person were assigned to provide oversight over what is sent),
then it would be possible to delete these messages before they're sent
out.  But to do that takes resources of various kinds, which are seldom
available, and as a result this list is completely automated.  That
means that every message received by the list, appropriate or not, is
sent on to the subscribers.  Because the Internet gives the appearance
of being free (of course it's not, but the costs aren't obvious to the
end-users), it typically operates in a free and open way which makes it
susceptible to abuses of this sort.  If we wanted to pay for it, we
could get such oversight (but then that raises many other issues, like
who would do it).
 
By the way, I believe a semi-colon is a special kind of period, not a
coordinating conjunction.
--
Michael G. Southwell =================================
Department of English
York College/CUNY
Jamaica, NY 11451
718/262-2470 (office), 2896 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.york.cuny.edu/~southwell
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