[WWW] Astronomy Research Google (not Usenet) Group

I found this Google Group dedicated to astronomy research, but it
doesn't have many members. If some of you sci.astro.research posters
would join this Google (not Usenet) group, you probably wouldn't
receive much SPAM due to your email addresses being made public with
Usenet. Usenet is an outdated technology.

http://groups.google.com/group/astronomy-research

[Mod. note: obviously I don't encourage anyone to do this,
particularly as the whole rationale of this group seems to be based on
the incorrect assumption that you can't post here with a spam-blocked
e-mail address... -- mjh]

In article ,
writes:

I found this Google Group dedicated to astronomy research, but it
doesn't have many members. If some of you sci.astro.research posters
would join this Google (not Usenet) group, you probably wouldn't
receive much SPAM due to your email addresses being made public with
Usenet. Usenet is an outdated technology.

http://groups.google.com/group/astronomy-research

[Mod. note: obviously I don't encourage anyone to do this,
particularly as the whole rationale of this group seems to be based on
the incorrect assumption that you can't post here with a spam-blocked
e-mail address... -- mjh]

Indeed. Also, harvesting email addresses from newsgroups is an outdated
technology. :-| Unfortunately. :-) A few years ago, with a new email
address which one NEVER posted in the clear in usenet or on the web, one
could count on getting almost no spam. These days, that is no longer
the case. There are two main reasons for this. First, spammers write
viruses which infect PCs, find email addresses and send spam to them.
So, if anyone has stored your email address on a PC, you can get spam.
Second, spammers are using "dictionary attacks", i.e. just trying
combinations of letters and hoping one is a real email address. (I was
getting hundreds of these a day until I configured the system to
silently drop email to non-existent users. Bouncing them isn't a good
idea, since the From: address is probably faked, and the bounce would
bounce back to me.)