On Tue, 18 May 2004 00:59:12 -0400 in
, Anonymous
graced the world with this thought:

Some time back somebody got all over me on this list over not posting a
valid return address. What I have posted below is proof that the email
addresses on this list are 1) harvested and 2) spammed.

There's no need for proof, anyone who doesn't think they are is living
in dreamland. Even the test newsgroups are scanned. Hell, the majority
of people on usenet use a munged or invalid address, anyone raving
about someone not doing it needs a mental check. I've always figured
that the people that get upset are the ones who sent you some abusive
crap, and it bounced... why not just answer in the newsgroup? If I
don't ask for email, someone sending me something unsolicited is just
as annoying as someone that wants to sell me penis enlargement pills.

I stopped using a valid address after I started getting abusive email
from people who were sweetness and light in the newsgroup they came
from. One person threatened to kill me because I disagreed with her
over a food allergy. That one got sent to the FBI and her ISP. Oh, and
when I took highly abusive email with language that would make a
longshoreman uncomfortable, and posted them in the newsgroup, the dumb
asses would invariably threaten to sue me because somehow they figured
this was "their property," and couldn't be posted without their
permission. Yeah, go pay a lawyer $5000 and do it, asshole. We'll see
what happens. Sorry, it's on my computer, it's now my property.

The conclusion: There's a very high incidence of morons on usenet.