[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Searching for Paul Johnson



Paul Johnson wrote:

> Like a growing number of admins, I'm sick of playing nice guy with
> ISPs who harbor spammers.  You spam, everyone you serve suffers.

That sort of "intentional collateral damage" strategy never works; not
on the net, not in the real world. You hurt yourself more than you hurt
anyone else, and other people, even if they notice that you're rejecting
their mail, just get annoyed with you and file you under "asshole".

At the risk of starting a political flamewar, observe that the most
prominent examples of "intentional collateral damage" in the
non-Internet world today are the sanctions against Iraq and Israeli
policy in the occupied territories. Note that after ten years of
sanctions, Saddam Hussein's grip on power is as strong as ever; and
thirty years after the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, terrorism
in Israel is worse than ever. "Intentional collateral damage" has
clearly not been successful, and in the long term will probably be seen
to have only made things worse all around.

RBLs are not a solution to the spam problem; they are themselves a
problem. Content-based filtering, when done well a la spamassassin, is a
much better approach. Even then, automatic bouncing is irresponsible.

Craig

Attachment: pgplollom2nLf.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: