FROM ADMIN: SPAM, SPAM, SPAM eggs and SPAM

[nathan r. hruby]

On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Bill Fink wrote:

> > > This seems to be major overkill and a bad policy.  I count only 3 spam
> > > messages this month out of a couple hundred or more total messages.
> > 
> > Some would say 3 is too many.
> 
> Some would.  You can generally tell from the subject line that it's
> spam and just ignore or delete it.
> 

Unless you deal with end user support on a daily basis.  I get lots of 
legitimate support requets with empty subjects lines or Spam-ish subjects 
all the time.  I use spamassissin and still have a hard time filter the 
wheat from the chaff.

[snip]

> > 
> > It's not closed, anyone can subscribe and then post.  Really, if you 
> > wanted to read the Web Based archives, but still post to the list, just 
> > subscribe to the lsit and then set the 'nomail' option for the address you 
> > subscribed.  You won't get lots of email, but you'll still be able to 
> > post.  
> 
> Thanks a ton for this idea!  That's what I just did.  This way I get the
> best of both worlds.
> 

You're welcome.  I run several mailman-based members-only lists, I get 
this question a lot :)

> > Many many many lists have moved to a 'members-only-posting' rule due to
> > spam, it really is that bad.  The worst part is that it will only get
> > worse.  3 this month mean 6-10 next month.  Addtionally, the spam causes
> > more work for the people of Yellowdag from trigger happy users forwarding 
> > the spam to places like spamcop who then blacklist the domain or others 
> > who then proble the hell out of the lists machine.
> 
> I haven't seen any increase in spam over the last year.  There seem to
> be 2 or 3 a month.
> 

You're a damn lucky man.

> > Does the current rule make it more difficult to psot to the list?  Yes.  
> > Is is a needed measure?  Yes.  When we get rid of spam (and the stupid 
> > people who buy the advertixed crap) will the list open back up to anyone 
> > posting?  Proably.
> 
> We'll agree to disagree on the necessary part, but thanks again for
> your workaround.
> 

Well, unless TSS would be willing to put Spamassissin in front of the 
mailing lsit queues, but that requires addtional overhead and the filters 
would need to be tweaked down a good bit, probably resulting in legit 
traffic getting crushed, espically those emails that come from non-native 
english speakers.

> On a tangentially related matter, does anyone know how to get sylpheed
> to actually automatically delete selected messages (via a filter).  The
> best I have managed is to route the selected messages to a Null folder.
> I could use a cron job to rm the files in the Null folder periodically,
> but it would be nicer if I could just get sylpheed to do this directly.
> 

Nope, sorry.  I use pine :)

-n
-- 
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nathan hruby <nathan@drama.uga.edu>
computer services specialist
uga drama
http://www.drama.uga.edu/support/
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