I totally agree with the comment below.

I used to give my callsign and e-mail address on the NG's and had terrible
grief as a result.
I never flamed anyone and was as diplomatic as possible if I had a different
view or disagreed with a poster.

95% of my posts were to help people. I answered several hundred over a 5
year period.
Being a ham for over 20 years and retired, it gave me a sense of
satisfaction as an Elmer.

Then came the spam, false signups, hate mail, false posts in my name, and
phone calls.
An idiot even cracked my password to QRZ and modified my Bio in a most
hideous way.

Another person here who is female was getting several obscene phone calls a
week when someone used QRZ to find her address, then the phone book for the
number. She had to bring in the authorities to get it stopped.

So that is why so many regular NG posters are anon.

Giving your callsign and true e-mail address DOES NOTHING TO ENHANCE
CREDIBILITY

BEWARE -- Caveat Poster

--
73 From the Spurious Noise ';';;';x":.,";"'

Gee, how did I know not to use my real name because some wacko like you
would be
looking me up on QRZ to get my address and whatnot. Why were you
trying to look me
up? So you could put me on all sorts of mailing lists or come visit my
house and
throw eggs at it? Grow up!

We may be forced to give out our callsigns on the ham frequencies but
anyone that does
it here is just asking for trouble. Might just as well post your real
email
addresses here too while you are at it so you can get lots of spam.

Now instead of trying to find my address so you can pull your pranks, why
not read the
rest and learn....

On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 12:07:03 -0500, Spurious Noise wrote
(in message Wihgb.54977$Ms2.1056@fed1read03):

An idiot even cracked my password to QRZ and modified my Bio in a most
hideous way.


During the late 80's and until I retired from the Army in '95, I ran a BBS in
the metro are of DC.

The only reason I ever checked passwords was that, invaribly, when the new
member was a "ham", she or he would use their callsign as the password.

So I would send them a polite message asking that the person change the
password to something not everyone in the world would know.

The general response I got was: "Thanks, I never thought of that".


Were you using your callsign as your password?



Gray Shockley
--------------------------------------------------------
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take
command. Very often, that individual is crazy. -Author Unk

Gray Shockley asked "Were you using your callsign as your password?"

No but I used my old expired (for 20 years) callsign, dumb I know as some
sources have your old callsign.
Guess that is how they cracked the password.

But you made a very good point and to add to it -- a regular change of
passwords is a good idea also - which I now do.

My e-mail address is an alias from my provider and I change the alias every
2 months or so depending on spamming. I get very little spam these days. My
friends and relatives are very tolerant of frequent address changes.

Also I ask friends never to send me an e-mail with several others in it --
(i.e., mass sending of jokes as everyone seems to like to do), rather I tell
them to send by using blind copy ONLY --- Bcc. This hides the recipient
list.

Sad commentary on today's society -- BUT one must take steps to prevent
spam, etc.

Also if you put your e-mail address on a web page -- DO NOT PUT IT IN TEXT
FORM -- use a jpeg or gif.
Apparently the spiders can not read the @ sign when it is in picture form.

--
73 From the Spurious Noise ';';;';x":.,";"'
-------------------------------------------------
"Gray Shockley" wrote in message
.com...
On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 12:07:03 -0500, Spurious Noise wrote
(in message Wihgb.54977$Ms2.1056@fed1read03):

An idiot even cracked my password to QRZ and modified my Bio in a most
hideous way.


During the late 80's and until I retired from the Army in '95, I ran a BBS
in
the metro are of DC.

The only reason I ever checked passwords was that, invaribly, when the new
member was a "ham", she or he would use their callsign as the password.

So I would send them a polite message asking that the person change the
password to something not everyone in the world would know.

The general response I got was: "Thanks, I never thought of that".


Were you using your callsign as your password?



Gray Shockley
--------------------------------------------------------
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take
command. Very often, that individual is crazy. -Author Unk

On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 13:42:01 -0500, Spurious Noise wrote:

But you made a very good point and to add to it -- a regular change of
passwords is a good idea also - which I now do.


Even safer is to just use one password once (keep a text file on your desktop
or hot-keyed).


My e-mail address is an alias from my provider and I change the alias every
2 months or so depending on spamming. I get very little spam these days. My
friends and relatives are very tolerant of frequent address changes.

One of my current web site providers allows two hundred e-mail addresses so
I'm thinking about setting up so I know which passwords (if not all sigh)
have been compromised. (however, that's really just curiosity).

I'm pretty crippled up most of the time so I can sit here a lot and it's
sorta fun to watch my spam program do its thing ("Spamfire" for the Macintosh
is a *great* program).


Also I ask friends never to send me an e-mail with several others in it --
(i.e., mass sending of jokes as everyone seems to like to do), rather I tell
them to send by using blind copy ONLY --- Bcc. This hides the recipient
list.

Sad commentary on today's society -- BUT one must take steps to prevent
spam, etc.

Oh, I hack some pretty weird people off (like "nazi's - not under Godwin) but
wacko's quoting their mental dwarf him/itself).

And then they help beta test my despammer grin.


Also if you put your e-mail address on a web page -- DO NOT PUT IT IN TEXT
FORM -- use a jpeg or gif.
Apparently the spiders can not read the @ sign when it is in picture form.


The spiders can't "read" an image - not any of it.

Think of an optical character reader (ocr) and you'll get the "image" dux.
It can read the pages but a "straight" ocr can't do a thing with graphics.


Anyway, I have been on line since 1985 and have always used my name and
city/state.


--
73 From the Spurious Noise ';';;';x":.,";"'
-------------------------------------------------



Gray Shockley
--------------------------
Entropy Maintenance Technician
Tao Chemical Company
--------------------------

http://www.cybercoffee.org/
Vicksburg, Mississippi US

I used to give my callsign and e-mail address on the NG's and had terrible
grief as a result.
I never flamed anyone and was as diplomatic as possible if I had a different
view or disagreed with a poster.

95% of my posts were to help people. I answered several hundred over a 5
year period.
Being a ham for over 20 years and retired, it gave me a sense of
satisfaction as an Elmer.

Then came the spam, false signups, hate mail, false posts in my name, and
phone calls.
An idiot even cracked my password to QRZ and modified my Bio in a most
hideous way.

And then the bozos here expect us to give them our callsigns after they have
been trolling and arguing with us first.

Another person here who is female was getting several obscene phone calls a
week when someone used QRZ to find her address, then the phone book for the
number. She had to bring in the authorities to get it stopped.

So that is why so many regular NG posters are anon.

Giving your callsign and true e-mail address DOES NOTHING TO ENHANCE
CREDIBILITY

Besides, there is no way to know that those that are giving call signs are not
just assuming that identity and it is really someone else's call sign or name.

There is no way to verify that ANYONE here is using their real name or call, nor
does it matter. No one should be concerned with anything other than the
statements being made.

"Jeff Renkin" wrote in message
...
I used to give my callsign and e-mail address on the NG's and had
terrible
grief as a result.
snipped

I would NEVER give my call sign out over here. It proves nothing. Some could
hack it to make it look as their own, which adds no credibility to it - as
was already stated. OR, as I've seen - some see a call sign and assume
you're being a smart ass trying to prove a point. Nah, that is ok. I can
chat or give advice or viewpoints without divulging my personal info. IF
anyone wanted to find it bad enough I'm sure they could, so let them work
for it if it means that much.
Lou