Re: [Fwd: Heathcliff for Saturday March 17, 2007]

[Ian Greenhoe <ihgreenman@gmail.com>]

[I am *trying* not to stir up a bee's nest here, since I know that this
is a topic on which many people have very strong opinions.]

I emphatically agree that something needs to be done about the volumes
of spam we are getting.

With that said this is not a moderated list and non-subscribers can
post. This are two things that most people on the list want to keep this
way.

I and other people have suggested solutions in the past -- and there is
a strong lack of consensus on this topic. It seems to me that consensus
is required for anybody to move forward on this. :P

<no_flames_please>

I think that grey listing is probably the best solution. I've stated
this opinion in the past, and have not changed it.

Grey listing is a combination of white listing and black listing:

* /Everybody/ who is subscribed is white listed automatically.

* *Known* bad (spam only) addresses are black listed.

* Non-subscribers who have posted successfully in the past are white
listed.

* Non-subscribers who have not successfully posted before:

  First, the message is put in a temporary queue.

  Second, an auto-generated message is sent to the "From:" address and
the "Reply-To:" address.

  /If/ the person replies to this message, they become white listed and
the queued message will get sent *and* all future messages from this
address will be posted.

  Also, there can be people who have permission to go through the queued
messages and manually white list or black list senders. This is so that
if a legitimate sender is unable to reply to the auto-generated message,
they can still get approved to post.

</no_flames_please>

-Ian
"Once burned, twice shy."

On Sat, 2007-03-17 at 19:25 +0530, Bhasker C V wrote:
> I think the moderator must take care of these subscribes and do not
> allow spam to get inside the list. 
> Although there are plenty of things I can do on my side to reduce spam
> like subscribe for no-mail and read mails through web etc., still, a
> constant vigilance on the subscribers will help reduce spam in these
> kinds of mailing lists.