Search through Enron emails! Win an Ipod Shuffle
February 7, 2006 2:15 PM   Subscribe

Find offensive content! The people at Inboxer allow you register for a free account to use their antispam software on approximately 500,000 Enron emails in a database. According to a Wired article, the appliance has found 71,268 inappropriate messages.

And just to add to the fun, they're offering to give away 3 Ipod Shuffles for people who submit the best emails in the "I'd fire him/her" the "Funniest Joke", and the "What were they thinking?" categories. Just to give you an idea of what we're talking about here, check out this lovely Booty Call contract. Also, check out the whitepaper they've written, Monsters in your mailbox (.pdf), and get worried if you're using your business email account for personal messages!
posted by jasper411 (24 comments total)
 


I did some searching for that kinda stuff when it first came out and I was really disappointed by the lack of smut available.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the database is only executives, right?
posted by empath at 2:42 PM on February 7, 2006


The rule about never writing e-mail from your business account that you wouldn't mind being posted in the lunchroom, or given to to the company president, is not a bad one. People can be idiots.
posted by mojohand at 2:43 PM on February 7, 2006


Chi Omegas
posted by badger_flammable at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2006


Wow. A few minutes of browsing and I stumbled across some guy's tragically stunted lrelationship-turned-awkwardness in progress. I feel kinda dirty now.
posted by verb at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2006


"jennifer logsdon married a sand nigger"

"grant pesak is a bohunk, and your mother would never approve"

"jeff barker doesn't seem quite as 'upwardly mobile' as iwould picture for you, but i will keep him on the list for now"

"i have eliminated all of these men that have spread their seed"

"yes. i don't need to raise some other whore's kids."

"ok then... trent stephens stays on the list...he played soccer....soccer player = pot smoker"

"by the way, you owe my company 400 dollars....cost of my lost man hours trying to guess your boyfriend"

"I was a 'pussy wagoneer' for you, and now
you're DUMPING me???"

-- it's like high school.
posted by ericb at 3:16 PM on February 7, 2006


verb: why feel dirty? Unlike the larger Enron story, this one had a happy ending.
posted by whir at 4:03 PM on February 7, 2006


Thats disturbing.

Im buying it now.
posted by subaruwrx at 4:40 PM on February 7, 2006


This is kinda cute, but it's a totally inappropriate invasion of these people's privacy, especially the people who sent email from outside of the company to people inside the company. I'm aware that one signs away all his privacy rights regarding email that gets sent through the corporation, but this is just gratuitous and mean. There's a big difference between publicizing emails between responsible parties in the Enron crimes, and publicizing personal emails for the purpose of mocking them.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:41 PM on February 7, 2006


I agree (though my intent above wasn't to mock). It's also pretty scary how many "here's my number and how to get to my house" type messages are in there. I confess to having a train-wreck type of fascination with the archive, though.
posted by whir at 4:55 PM on February 7, 2006


Here's a previous mefi thread on the archives themselves. The more I think about it, the creepier it seems to make money off of this.
posted by whir at 5:13 PM on February 7, 2006


Now that I get a sense of the caliber of individuals working at Enron, understanding how a scandal of such crapulence and magnitude could have occurred is much easier. That place was rotting from the inside out with shallow, immature, vacuuous, wasp-y fuckstickery.
posted by stenseng at 5:21 PM on February 7, 2006


Years ago, this very smart Ivy League educated friend of mine (who incidentally worked for a Enron-like power brokerage company) sent me, from her work email to my work email, these tremendously long and very personal soul-bearing rants, in all lower case and without any punctuation, about her then-current relationship.
posted by orthogonality at 5:33 PM on February 7, 2006


Years ago, this very smart Ivy League educated friend of mine (who incidentally worked for a Enron-like power brokerage company) sent me, from her work email to my work email, these tremendously long and very personal soul-bearing rants, in all lower case and without any punctuation, about her then-current relationship.
posted by orthogonality at 5:33 PM PST on February 7


Proof that even the best schools have their share of socially retarded folks.
posted by onegreeneye at 7:51 PM on February 7, 2006


Wow. After reading the Booty Call contract, I so want to meet Matthew Lenhart. What a catch he must be. I'll bet his mother is proud, too.
posted by onegreeneye at 8:04 PM on February 7, 2006


Some personal stuff there!

And I'm just the kind of asshole to point it out!
posted by Kickstart70 at 8:09 PM on February 7, 2006


Some personal stuff there!

Married folks working for the same company have to have this sort of discussion via email rather than face to face? Maybe that was the problem!
posted by onegreeneye at 8:41 PM on February 7, 2006


Wow, so she let the marriage fall apart and then he became the great seducer ... that was fun, thanks.
posted by nearo at 9:30 PM on February 7, 2006


The more I think about it, the creepier it seems to make money off of this.

Well, ya gotta admit it fits their product well. But yeah, I'm skipping this one. It's completely unfair to non-Enron folks.
posted by mediareport at 12:08 AM on February 8, 2006


I don't think they're directly making money off of this and I don't think it's any creepier than historians going through every last letter of some historic figure. Or someone Googling every last one of your Metafilter posts. (Will this data on Metafilter survive like the posts on Dejanews? Oh, the horror!)
posted by notmtwain at 5:08 AM on February 8, 2006


(Will this data on Metafilter survive like the posts on Dejanews? Oh, the horror!)
Good lord! I had forgotten all about the usenet recordings! No one, no one search for me there! Enron mails will look like Shakespere!

(peeks into groups.google)
(runs screaming, tearing hair out)
posted by cavalier at 5:44 AM on February 8, 2006


Wow, so she let the marriage fall apart and then he became the great seducer ... that was fun, thanks.

Oh, so thaat was the bad relationship he was talking about a few months later. I guess his reaction can be understood in that context.

This is like data mining soap opera scripts.

--Jeff
posted by verb at 6:35 AM on February 8, 2006


Wow
posted by empath at 6:49 AM on February 8, 2006


This is disgusting.
posted by rxrfrx at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2006


« Older BLM Pulls Funding After Controversial Results...   |   ...With bows in her hair, And nothing is better... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments