Subject: bug#46472: Make lisp/mail/uce.el obsolete

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2021 09:58:51 +0200

> From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2021 15:58:53 -0600
> 
> ;; The code in this file provides a semi-automatic means of replying
> ;; to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) you might get.
> 
> It sends an email to the sender, as well as the abuse and postmaster
> emails for the senders domain containing a fairly polite request to be
> taken off any lists.  I think these days, it is pointless to reply to
> spam, and no one is (or should be) doing it.  It only verifies to the
> spammers that your email is valid, which is useful information to them
> and will do nothing but ensure you stay on their list.
> 
> This seems like a relic from a more gentle and perhaps naive time of the
> internet.  Nowadays, people should not waste their time on doing that,
> but instead use a spam filter.
> 
> IOW, I think this library is useless these days.
> 
> So how about moving it to obsolete/?

What are the reasons for moving uce.el to obsolete/ ?

What you say above was always true: replying to spam bears an inherent
risk.  This didn't change in any way, so how will we justify
obsoleting this package now?  I don't think our personal opinions on
which is or isn't useful practices are reasons good enough to make it
harder for others to use those practices if they so wish.  It isn't
our prerogative to tell others what to do or not to do in these
circumstances.

So my vote is against obsoleting this package, if the above reasoning
is the only grounds for that.