Re: Automator-users Digest, Vol 73, Issue 7
Re: Automator-users Digest, Vol 73, Issue 7
- Subject: Re: Automator-users Digest, Vol 73, Issue 7
- From: Ron Hunsinger <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:11:40 -0800
On Feb 8, 2012, at 11:37 AM, Richard Kendall Wolf wrote:
> Will this hell never end? :)
There seems to be a rash of neophytes who suddenly find themselves subscribed to this list and, being neophytes, don't know how to unsubscribe.
If it were just one or two of them, I'd chalk up to ineptness, chuckle at their cluelessness, and move on.
But it isn't just one or two. There are suddenly a bunch of them, and I begin to ask myself "Why?" I suspect there's something new, somewhere out there on the internets, that is subscribing people to this list without their being aware that they're doing it. Some possibilities spring to mind:
There's a Nigerian Prince who will tell you how to get your (AppleScript) questions answered by Steve Jobs' ghost, if you'll just click on this link and follow the instructions. (But again, Why?)
Someone published a method for How To Remove Your Timeline from Facebook, or some-such. Nothing evil, but the method involves running some AppleScript/Automator action, so the first step in the instructions is to tell them how to subscribe to the mailing list where the full instructions can be found. (I haven't seen any such "full instructions" on the list, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.)
Someone re-posted a message from this list elsewhere, but didn't remove the links at the end. People click on the "unsubscribe" link (thinking it's a link to something else, or maybe just not thinking), and follow the instructions. However, not being subscribed, they wind up subscribing rather than unsubscribing. (IIRC, the "unsubscribe" link actually takes you to an account management page, where you can subscribe as well as unsubscribe.)
Or maybe they didn't post a whole message from here, just an exhortation to read/sign a petition to end world hunger, but due to a copy/paste error the link in the exhortation points here instead of to the petition.
There's some malware out there that tries to discover the password to your email account, and having done so subscribes you to a bunch of lists, including this one. Why? Maybe someone's warped sense of humor. Or maybe to distract victims from the other emails that would warn them that their bank accounts are being drained.
There's a bug in some application that subscribes users silently and automatically. Maybe it was some programmer's idea of a simple way to register beta testers to get helpful emails, but instead of subscribing them to the "Acme Widget Beta Testers's List", it subscribes them to this list.. Why? No reason. It's a bug. Bugs don't need to follow any kind of logic.
Maybe someone exploring Automator/AppleScript wrote a script to automatically send a message to everyone in their address book. Again, a bug got in their way, and once during testing they wound up subscribing everyone in their address book to the list. There would have been a confirming email that needs to be clicked on to complete the subscription, but some users will click on anything.
There's an old saying: "Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence." I think a corollary is in order: "Never presume, when you see indications of ineptness, that you know who the incompetent is."
-Ron Hunsinger
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