By Barbara Falconer Newhall
It's been kinda lonesome here lately at localhost/baarbaar/. The Contact button has been right there at the top of my Home Page ready to accept messages from one and all. But nobody's been clicking.
Or so I thought.
Turns out that message after message has been turned away by my server because of a spam-riddled inbox. High school friends who’ve googled me and discovered that I had a website. Loyal readers with something insightful to say. And even a colleague inviting me to talk to her writing class. Dozens of important messages have either been rejected or lost in a swamp of spam: 45,000 — count ’em, 45,000 — spam messages clogged my inbox, burying messages and preventing new ones from getting through.
Spam-Riddled No More
A phone call to my webmaster and — my spam-riddled inbox problem is solved. A vigilant spam catcher has been installed, and your messages will be reaching me just fine from now on. You’ll have to pass an are-you-human? test to prove that you’re not a robot; but you’re used to that by now.
Meanwhile, if you have tried in vain to contact me — my apologies. I’ll be doing better from now on.
More about the writing life at “The Writing Room: To Niche or Not to Niche?” And “The Punch Line Always Goes Last.”
