EMBARRASSING TO THE LIST: Re: *WARNING* Your EmailAccount Will Be Closed

[Jules Agee]

Kern, Tom wrote:
> I'm subscribed to the postfix and spamassassin mailing lists and they are closed.
> I think those 2 lists have a lot to do with email.
> 
> This is the only list i'm on that got hit by that german spam bot..
> 
> maybe you shouldn't discount every option to filter spam as "not worth the effort" or "they can get around it somehow".
> 
> you'd be surprised at how far just basic checks and filters can go..

Seconded.
info-cyrus is the only list I'm subscribed to that allows posting by
non-subscribers. Maybe it's not a coincidence that it's also the only
list that I get spam & viruses from on a regular basis.

Spam coming through the list is more likely to bypass filters since it's
origin is slightly obfuscated and the headers added by the list software
add a small measure of authenticity to the message. My Bayes filter
thinks those headers look like legit mail. It's not a major influence,
but it does have some effect, so I think it's reasonable for the list
admins to assume some small measure of responsibility for the junk that
gets relayed through their system.

I'm not asking for 100% accountability, and it's not that big a deal
anyway. There will always be asshats, and there will always be a way to
screw up a list if someone's really trying. Fortunately, those real
asshats are relatively rare.

All I'm saying is that it would be nice to see measures in place that
seem to be pretty common on other lists, like restricting posting to
subscribers. What would it hurt to implement that? Why NOT?
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