Re: ugh (was Re: [T3] Top-selling antivirus software)

[Greg Merritt <gregm@vwtype3.org>]

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	The fundamental, minimum requirement to receive spam is... 
having an e-mail address.

	The list has (well, *is*) an e-mail address, so it meets this 
minimum requirement.

	Since spam commonly uses html/rich text formatting, and html 
messages don't get posted to the list, this has helped a bunch.  Some 
spam is just plain text, though, and this can get through.

	In the ever-escalating spam wars, the vwtype3.org mail server 
now "rates" every message it receives on a sort of "is this likely to 
be spam?" scale.  I added a filter that checks the rating of each 
message and blocks moderately spammish messages from getting through. 
(Unfortunately, it also blocks some of Kevin G.'s legitimate 
messages.  I'm workin' on it.)

	Some of you also have anti-spam services as part of your 
e-mail service, or run anti-spam tools on the computer where you read 
your mail.  These may have intercepted some of the spam messages that 
*did* get posted to the list.

	This list could be set to forbid posting *from* addresses 
that are not subscribed to the list, but this ends up blocking things 
like legitimate posts from people who have multiple e-mail addresses, 
or who just read via the Web.  It's really annoying.  I prefer the 
"allow all, but block the bad" approach over "block everything, 
except those who *look* like friends" system.  Hopefully this way 
we'll just get a *very* few bad posts, and pretty much all of the 
real posts will sail on through all the time.

-Greg Merritt

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