Sure: we get it. We always respond, either by sending this mock auto-response or a dead-serious warning concerning e-mail abuse, depending on our mood. What follows are among the most pungent e-mails we've received since 11 September 2001.
On 19 September 2001, we received the following e-mail from an AOL address:
This [presumably the Surveillance Camera Players' site] is treason and you should be reported. How can you support what you are doing after we were attacked? You are offering information that may be of importance to the enemy and you should be watched. I recommend you take down your site and wake up! We live in a new era and we must be realistic. If you continue to operate I will personally report what you are doing to the security authority in New York.
[signed] Concerned.
Though this person immediately received the standard warning about not being sent any more e-mail of any kind (the type of warning familiar to readers of AOL's "Terms of Service Agreement"), s/he wrote back to say,
Please, report me "to my service provider." I want to make the public more aware of what you are doing. This is not funny anymore. I asked you a question? How can you continue to do this after we were attacked? If you wish not to reply I understand. But this is still wrong and that is my opinion. MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!!
One presumes that AOL did indeed contact this staunch defender of free speech and warn him or her that he or she was indeed violating its "Terms of Service Agreement" and would be deprived of further service if any more complaints were received, because he/she hasn't been heard from since.
On 29 September 2001, we received the following e-mail from an AOL address:
You know the only reason you people do this is for attention, and against my better judgement I am going to feed your egos your [sic] a few minutes. If you had half a brain in your pathetic little heads, you would realize that no surveillance system is designed to prevent or warn of a terrorist attack like what just happened. Also, you have reports of these failed attempts by surveillance cameras to stop eradic [sic] driving and fights. That the police showed up to [sic] late, but did you stop and realize that they now had pictures of the suspects. My best-friend was hit and killed by a drunk driver who drove off, and because of these systems that person was caught. And if you jerk-offs would stop spending so much damn time in front of these cameras, they might catch more stuff. You are all uneducated idiots who are using your ignorance of a useful tool to [sic] your ego gratification. If you fuck offs would exert a little more time and energy on useful shit you might actually [word missing] something people will remember in twenty years. It is time all anarchists wake up and realize this government is going to be around long after you are dead and forgotten ( which will hopefully be soon ). So go out get a real education on the subject your [sic] talking about then get in there and support your country. You were lucky enough to be born in [word missing] place where you can object to these things. Use that power in a rational way and fight against things that matter.
Let me close with a little saying, prayer, whatever you want to call it: "God grant me strength to change the things I can / The serentity to accept the things I can't / And the wisdom to know the difference." You have the first two now find the third
All this person got in response to these rather weak insults was a direct and clearly worded warning from the NY SCP that any further e-mails from him/her would be immediately reported to AOL as a violation of the company's Terms of Service Contract concerning threatening e-mails. This one knew better than to ignore such a warning, and was never heard from again.
On 9 April 2003, we received the following e-mail from a Hotmail address.
You guys are fucking idiots. First, cameras in public break no law. Anything I can see walking around, so can they. Second, anyone not seeing the advantage of cameras in public is moronic. Lastly, anyone worried about cameras invading their privacy is paranoid or a criminal.
There is no big brother. The goverment doesn't care if you are getting stoned in your house, fucking a gerbil, or whatever. Cameras are not used for that. And personally, I couldn't care less if a camera was placed in my living room. What's the worst they can see? Me spanking it once in a while to a porno, or fucking my girlfriend. Big woop! Nothing another coutless million Americans are doing.
Get a life, or even better...a real job.
Contact the NY Surveillance Camera Players
By e-mail SCP@notbored.org
By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998