On Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 04:47:38PM -0500, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > Given that spammers are increasingly targetting mailing lists,
> > is there an example of a list having effective control measures to combat
> > this?
>
> The only measure that seems to work is restricting list postings to
> subscribers only. Unfortunately, this is also a major inconvenience for
> those who use the list legitimately.
There is a simple solution to this, pretty easy to script too.
If the message is not to the list directly, hold it. (about 60% of spam)
If the message is from a subscriber, send it.
If the message is from a person on a known user list, send it.
If none of the above, hold it.
The moderators (yes, plural) can reject the spam and send on everything
else. When they send a message on, it should be noted that htey did so.
A couple messages sent on from the same sender should get them added to
the known users list. It is not unreasonable to script this.
The known user list needs to also track when last a message was sent by a
given person on it. Since this sort of tracking is already in place
(though I don't know of anyplace that it is documented), I don't see a
problem using it for the lists. Basically, if a someone on the known user
list doesn't post for some long time, remove them from it automatically so
that the list does not grow forever.
Subscribers and people posting from alternate addresses will basically see
no difference. Non-subscribers' messages will have a slight delay, but
are not rejected. Messages not actually to the list are assumed to be
spam, but not outright rejected in case they're actually not. This should
dramatically reduce if not eliminate the spam on the lists.
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@bluecherry.net> Don't feed the sigs
Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me.
-- Linus Torvalds
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