It used to be a rare occurrence that a message I sent didn’t make it to the intended recipient’s inbox because of some overly aggressive filtering. No more. It seems to be happening on a weekly (almost daily) basis now.

What happens when messages you originate no longer make it to the inbox, but instead are dumped into a Junk mail folder with dozens (or hundreds) of other messages? Is everyone diligent about routinely scanning through spam to make sure nothing is overlooked? How can you be sure it won’t be missed among so much garbage?

It’s all fun and games until your outgoing messages are lost.

In Another War We’re Not Winning: Us vs Spam, after learning how much spam hits the servers at O’Reilly, Dave Doughtery asks,

[Is] the situation as bad as I thought it might be? In short, the answer is yes, which only makes me wonder why more people aren’t talking about it.

Why aren’t people talking about it? Because we’ve accepted it.

The email inbox is one of the most accurate virtual instances of a real life object — the traditional mail box. Junk mail has always been part of the package, and we have all been perfectly willing to sort through coupons, advertisements, credit card applications, real estate ads, catalogues (from the store we bought something at years ago), and anything else our friendly postal carrier can stuff in the box. It’s just a fact of life. Why would email be any different?

I don’t think we’ve lost the war… I don’t think it was a war. We are simply faced with a reality that comes with almost every form of communication in a world where so many vie for our attention.

I still walk to my mail box every day, I still answer my phone, and even after filtering and sifting through the spam, I still read and respond to my email. And I know that there are smart people out there that will find ways to make email more reliable. While I realize that none of the solutions proposed so far have gained much acceptance or momentum, I think things will change. As Eric Allman summarized,

I still get junk phone calls, but the phone system is reasonably usable today. I think that spam can get to that level.

I agree.

There is no doubt the system needs work. Alternate forms of communication like IM, SMS will gain mind share and acceptance, but I still like to know “I’ve got mail”.

PS. Please check your inbox, I forwarded you an email from a Nigerian prince whose father has been dethroned but has some stock tips and a large amount of Viagra he’d like to get out of the country. I think we can help him.

…the internet will be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from midnight on March 31 through the early hours of April 2. This cleaning is necessary to clear out the “electronic flotsam and jetsam” that has accumulated in the network.

It’s a wonder my blog is still here.