By Mike Musgrove
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Friday, May 25, 2007; A01
> Last month, venture capitalist Fred Wilson drew a lot of attention on
> the Internet when he declared a 21st century kind of bankruptcy. In a
> posting on his blog about technology, Wilson announced he was giving
> up on responding to all the e-mail piled up in his inbox.
> "I am so far behind on e-mail that I am declaring bankruptcy," he
> wrote. "If you've sent me an e-mail (and you aren't my wife, partner,
> or colleague), you might want to send it again. I am starting over."
> College professors have done the same thing, and a Silicon Valley
> ---stuff snipped----
> Those declaring bankruptcy are swearing off e-mail entirely or, more
> commonly, deleting all old messages and starting fresh.
Lawrence Lessig did this a year or so ago, including trashing every unanswered message in his In box -- but only after sending each of those correspondents a codeword that allowed them *one* "free" single-screen email response back to him, that would get through his filters and that he guaranteed he would read.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That 'codeword' he sent them is about the same thing as my 'secret word' technique. Yes, I know there are going to be users who do not know about it, and yes, I know some legit mail get past me and hit the trashcan by accident, and yes, I know it is a terrible thing to do; (it has happened to me elsewhere when sending email) but NO, I do not intend to feel guilty about it any longer. I still suggest that in light of the huge amount of spam/scam on the net these days, it is the only practical way of handling it all. Are there any other _workable, practical_ solutions I have overlooked? Someone please tell me. PAT]