Sun 23 Nov 2008

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Edited by Paul Hales

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Montana safe from spam

Welcome to the No Junk Mail State

IF YOU WANT TO escape from spam you need to hitch yourself up a wagon and head to Montana.

According to Mainstreet.com, Montana is the least spammed state in the country. We suspect most inhabitants thought the survey was asking them if they had ever eaten Spam and since most of them would not dream of eating anything that did not go moo when you cut its throat, the thought of tinned meat is heresy.

Matt Sergeant, senior anti-spam technologist for MessageLabs said that part of the reason is that most spam is connected to politics, loan offers, sexual enhancements or porn.

Nothing that would interest the humble cow pokes of Montana.

Then there is the small matter that data takes a long time to get to the state. Each packet has to arrive in a covered wagon, and face a trial of Indians, sand storms and rattle snakes before it arrives on anyone's computer.

We guess that spam does not have the pioneering spirit. µ

L'Inq
Mainstreet.com

Comments

What the hell is Montana?

There isn't anything in Montana worth talking about even spam email. I wish an earthquake would hit and just blow it off the planet earth.
posted by : whatever, 29 July 2008

We do get spammed

It might not be near as much as other states or people in other countries, but the worst cases I have seen or heard of so far get around 50-100 per day.
posted by : Tazz, 29 July 2008

Feeble joke attempt

I live in Montana and work at one of the few publicly traded Internet software companies
headquartered in the state. And my company uses MessageLabs for spam management so a large part of the numbers being reported come from us.

The author states that we are "safe" from spam and makes the assumption that it's because of our glorious lack of sophistication. First of all, a basic truth is that no one is safe from spam due to location. Montana's spam rate is still an unacceptable 77% so it's not like we don't get it don't ya know. Second, notice that the 2nd most spammed state was South Dakota and there were many other sparsely populated rural states with high spam rates.

If the author were to actually read the source report from MessageLabs he'd notice this
quote, '“The varying spam levels across states can be attributed to different socioeconomic
factors and levels of security awareness in each state,” said Matt Sergeant, Senior Anti-Spam Technologist, MessageLabs.' The truth for Montana's "success" is in the 2nd part of that statement. The reason our spam rates are lower is because of our higher, more sophisticated level of security awareness. We are just smarter Internet users.

You see, the smarter IT folks have figured out that when working on the Internet your job can
be location transparent. You can have the best of two worlds. You can have a high paying high tech job in the country. I myself escaped the Silicon Valley rat race and now practice high tech in "Big Sky Country." I feel sorry for geeks stuck in large metropolitan rat races with long commutes to work. You need to get a life, get out from behind the computer and get outdoors once and a while. Companies like mine are hiring.

I think I'll go fly fishing today. The closest good trout stream is only 5 minutes away.
posted by : DB, 29 July 2008

Ha Ha

Yup, very funny
posted by : Randy Cowger, 29 July 2008

They have roads now...

...but the Injuns are still uppity.
posted by : Brad, 29 July 2008

re: Feeble joke attempt

Just want to echo DB's comments about leaving the rat race and still being a geek. I'm a perl/MySQL programmer and left Toronto, Ontario, Canada about six years ago to move a village in northeastern Ontario where we have more cows than people (People: 900. Cows: A few thousand). 6 Mb/Sec DSL does me just fine and my work is, as JB puts it: Location transparant.

Least spam in Montana ? That's more than likely a fluke of statistics, since spammers rarely target by geographical location (where do you get 'Montana' or 'Ontario' or 'London' out of user@gmail.com, for example ?)
posted by : Marc Bissonnette, 30 July 2008

Hey 'whatever'. Keep it in mind

Hey mr (or ms) 'whatever', Montana doesn't need jerks like you. Keep thinking the same thoughts about Montana and enjoy your life in New York or whatever miserable place you live!!
posted by : Zeldar, 30 July 2008

thanks, montana!

i thank montana for bringing us fajitas and burritos!
posted by : lynx, 30 July 2008

You are right about Montana

Montana is a podunk State. You are right it sucks here. Our internet connections are run over a fishing line. Heck the voice system I just put in runs on Dixi cups and string. Great quality.

THe worse part about living in Montana is all the great people moving in from other states to have a second third or heck fourth home and stay there two weeks a year and try and change this area to the F#$%ed upness that which they came from.

So al in all I agree with you all Montana Sucks and you should all stay away because it is 30 years behind every other glorious concrete jungle that some may call home.
posted by : TooTall, 30 July 2008

Cats rule, Griz drool!

If you're from Montana you know what I mean.
posted by : anonymousbobcat, 30 July 2008

Montana:

Where the men are men and the sheep are nervous.
posted by : Joe, 31 July 2008
IThound
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