Bars on the e-Mail Windows?

I'm seeing this more and more lately, where we get a reader e-mail that really calls for a response, and we give a nice, detailed response, and then we hit the send button, and a couple of minutes later we get this auto-reply:

I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.


To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.


If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.


Click the link below to fill out the request:

Of course, I'm not giving the link in the e-mail. But to describe it to you, I'm supposed to fill out my first name, middle initial, last name, all my e-mail addresses I could possibly use to send e-mails to this recipient, an up-to-100-character message explaining why I want access to send e-mails to this person, and finally to do one of those "Type the text from the image below into the box to the right" things. Uuuuuhhhhhhhh...nah.

Yeah, I just had this happen. Again. It's been going on for a while. Not too often, but it's starting to get under my skin. I have a little picture in my head of people sitting in a little "computer" house with bars on the windows, keeping the e-mail intruders out. But also keeping away the people that these "homeowners" WANT visitors from, too.

If I'm being honest, then you should know that most times (like, 99.9999999%), I'm probably not going to take the time to fill out these forms just to get my e-mail response through.

As someone who sends and receives lots of personal e-mail, too, that has nothing to do with TVShowsOnDVD, then I would REALLY hesitate to set up some system where the person I want to respond to me has to do work to get that e-mail to me. Most people aren't going to do it, and I'll be waiting for a response that therefore would never come.

And, if I DID decide to set it up because I felt spam was driving me to just that level of crazy, then I might at least include a mention in outgoing messages that such a system was in place, and forewarn the people I e-mailed to let them know to expect this when they replied.

What do you guys think?