Spammer’s Veto

American law has the concept of a heckler’s veto. It refers to the ability of hecklers (people who respond negatively to someone’s speech) to shut down the offending speech in the first place. For example, a march may be shut down because the government fears that counterprotesters will disturb the peace.

This reminded me about spam. I’d like to host web sites and services for people. I’d like to do it for free (after all, my computer isn’t serving anyone 99% of the time anyways). But I always get discouraged when I realize that if people started sharing my site, then it’s just a matter of time until spammers, malware distributors, and people trying to share other illicit material take it over. Without any sort of content filtering or moderation, links to my site will get quickly blocked by mail servers and social media sites.

I’d like to use the knowledge and money I have at my disposal to give people a place to hang out online, but I just can’t, because spammers have the last word. So for now, it’s just me posting here.