[svlug] OT: I live in an email ghetto - Brian Bilbrey, email

[Ian Kluft]

>From: secure at realns.com
>Quoting "Karsten M. Self" <kmself at ix.netcom.com>:
>> > 	There are more blacklists than MAPS.
>> > http://www.five-ten-sg.com/blackhole.php?ip=81.108.149.163&Search=Search
>
>Just a curious question of thought.... Where did the term 'blacklist' originate
>from? It sounds so racial. Anybody know of its origin?

That sounds so much like a troll.  But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
   http://www.thunder.net/jargon/html/entry/troll.html

Webster's Dictionary shows the addition of "blacklist" in the year 1619.
It's undoubtedly named simply for the color.
   http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=blacklist
   http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=blacklist

The colors represent the "off" and "on" opposites.  A blacklist contains
items that are turned off or disabled.  Today, a recent adaptation of the
term, "whitelist", refers to a list that contains items that are enabled.
   http://www.thunder.net/jargon/html/entry/whitelist.html

When we talk about blacklists in a data networking context, we mean lists
to boycott spammers and sites that relay spam mail.  Likewise, a whitelist
refers to sites or addresses known not to be sources of spam.

While the words could be used/misused the way you imagine, that meaning
wouldn't apply without the presence of the word "discriminatory" to provide
such context.  Let's just not go there, please.