Re: OT - Frequency of unsolicited emails
On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:19:54 -0400, Doug wrote:
> On 09/11/2011 11:23 AM, Camaleón wrote:
>> On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:58:30 -0700, MR ZenWiz wrote:
>>
>>> I've noticed since joining this list a number of weeks back that it is
>>> the only technical/OS discussion list to which I subscribe that
>>> frequently, as in one or more daily, ends up with emails in my spam
>>> list.
>> Yup, the more mailing lists you subscribe, the more chances to get your
>> inbox full of spam :-)
>>
>>> Are we somehow more susceptible or less secure from spam than other
>>> lists, like Ubuntu users, CentOS users, GNOME users, etc. and if so,
>>> can't something be done about it?
>> I'd say we are the same as in any other open mailing list. Or even we
>> are less susceptible because Debian mailing lists lack for an archive
>> (plain text based mbox file).
>>
>>> It's a minor annoyance, but really, on an OS discussion list?
>>>
>>> Just saying....
>> I use a dedicated e-mail for posting in mailing lists so I keep my main
>> inbox off of spam messages. True is that Gmail handles this reasonably
>> well.
>>
>>
> I agree with the OP. I subscribe to at least 5 lists, and the Debian
> list is the only one that consistently has all kinds of spam, not only
> in English,
> but in various foreign languages, some of them in strange scripts!
This is something that could be improved, I agree, because you usually
don't expect to see non-English posts on this list (or English posts in
Spanish mailing list, etc...), but I'm afraid that training spamassassin
bayesian filter to give accurate points to non-English messages that are
still valid here (maybe due to a confusion of the poster but still Debian
related questions) is not an easy task, it requires manpower because
automatic language filters do not always work very accurately.
We (mailing list users) can help in this task of identifying spam and
report it to the mailing lists maintainers:
http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/index.en.html#ads
So IMO, better receive a bits of spam here that rejecting valid
messages :-)
> Many of these appear to come from some travel agency, altho I have to
> guess, not being fluent in Hungarian, etc. But I think the situation
> has improved somewhat over the past 6 months or so.
I also have to say that people reading/posting through Gmane are covered
by their own anti-spam system besides of the mailing list one, so we have
an advantage here :-)
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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