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Sun, 12 Dec 2004

Rude widows

I run several mailing lists, one of which is for an 8-bit computer club. That list is rather quiet. A few days ago, I sent a mail to the list to let people know that I'd renewed their domain for another two years. This evening at 18:00, this message arrived:

I have already notified you that my husband died in Febeuary (sic) this year. PLEae (sic) can you ensure that his name is removed from all your lists?

All very reasonable, despite the incorrect assertion that I have already been notified - perhaps she'd notified the club, but this list, although run *for* the club, is not run *by* the club. But at 18:00 I was busy doing far more important things. I dunno what it was. Maybe having a piss, or making a cup of tea, or reading a book, or wrapping christmas presents, but whatever it was, I didn't have the ethernet cable plugged into my brane and wasn't *instantly* dealing with email.

Then another message arrives at 18:01, in response to another message on the list:

I have already notified you that mny husband died in February. PLease remove

his name from all your lists.

A few seconds later, she's obviously getting quite irate:

I HAVE NOTIFIED YOU ALREADY THAT MY HUSBAND HAS DIED. PLEASE REMOVE HIS NAME FROM ALL YOUR LISTS!

Then at 18:03, because her own messages are being sent to the list and consequently sent straight back out to her, she starts complaining about her own messages!

This prompts another list member to say:

Blimey. I think someone's trying to mount a DoS attack on the [mumble] mailing list.

You know, she's being so inconsiderate and rude that I'm tempted to just let her TRY to DoS it. And I'm trying to decide just how snotty I should be in the last message she'll get before I remove her hubby's address from the list. Petty? Sure. Spiteful? Yup. And deserved? Certainly. She's been rude and inconsiderate herself.

Posted at 19:25 by David Cantrell
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