* * * * *

   Yet another case where a spammer didn't bother to actually read the page

> From: Jen Miller <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Research on Mattresses
> Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 09:13:34 -0800
>
> Dear Editor,
>
> My name is Jen and I’m a writer at Jen Reviews. I was doing research on
> mattresses and just finished reading your wonderful blog post:
> http://www.conman.org/asg-x/links.html [1]
>
> In that article, I noticed that you cited a solid post that I’ve read in
> the past: https://www.slumberland.com/
>
> I just finished writing a guide that is even more detailed, updated and
> comprehensive on how to choose a mattress - 9 factors to consider according
> to science. It is over 7,000 words and packed with practical tips and
> advice. You can find it here: https://www.jenreviews.com/mattress/
>
> If you like the guide we’d be humbled if you cited us in your article. Of
> course, we will also share your article with our 50k newsletter subscribers
> and followers across our social platforms.
>
> Either way, keep up the great work!
>
> Warmly,
>  Jen
>

I swear, my pagerank [2] must be increasing or something, because I'm getting
a lot more of these types of email lately. And it's clear the sender never
bothered to look at the page as the page in question [3] isn't even a blog
post. It's from way in the past—October of 1998, to be exact (and I know that
because this page [4] caused Welcome Wagon International, Inc. [5] to send a
“cease and desist” letter to my previous host for violating their copyright,
thus forcing me to register my own (and still current) domain).

The http://www.slumberland.com/ link on the page was actually linking to
Wendy Dunlap's homepage [6] and not to a matress company. To tell the truth,
I would be surprised if any of the links on that page work—even the link to
me (where my last name is mispelled “Conn**o**r”) points to a non-existant
domain (which wasn't even correct when I mirrored that page in October of
1998). The only reason that page is still here is because “cool links don't
change [7]” and I was doing the smooth transition from the old host to new
one. In fact, until today, I had forgotten that page even exists.

And as for what ASG-X (alt.society.generation-x) actually was, will have to
wait for another time.

[1] http://www.conman.org/asg-x/links.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
[3] http://www.conman.org/asg-x/links.html
[4] http://www.conman.org/asg-x/welcome.html
[5] https://www.welcomewagon.com/
[6] http://slumberland.org/wp/
[7] https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI

Email author at [email protected]