[Bell Historians] standards of research

[Carl S Zimmerman]

David Bryant wrote:
>Yes, I also have had many helpful comments and additional pieces of
>information from readers of my websites. That's why I think it is a good
>idea to have am email address on such websites, even if it does mean myriad
>spam emails advertising everything from porn to foreign holidays, loans,
>etc!

Actually, I'm not convinced that including my email address on the 
Websites I maintain is a significant contributor to the amounts of 
spam I receive. My present address has been in use for more than two 
years, and is at the bottom of every one of more than 1000 pages on 
the GCNA Website. In spite of that, I only get a few dozen spams a 
day--less than the usual number of Ringing-Chat messages on a 
weekday. :-) And since Southwestern Bell (SBC) subcontracted e-mail 
handling to Yahoo, most of that spam gets intercepted at the Bulk 
Mail folder on Yahoo, and so doesn't get downloaded to my desktop. 
(I do review that folder regularly to rescue any false positives, but 
there are progressively fewer of those as I get the spam blocker 
trained.)

I agree with David that a publicly-visible email address is worth the 
hassle it may cause, because it encourages total strangers to 
communicate information that could be very interesting.

Carl