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Date:      Fri, 8 Jan 1999 13:07:06 +1100 (EST)
From:      Graeme Cross <graeme@babylon.wsc.monash.edu.au>
To:        "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu>
Cc:        freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: New Majordomo Feature
Message-ID:  <Pine.LNX.4.04.9901081300350.1551-100000@babylon.wsc.monash.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9901071548290.1897-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>

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On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Jason C. Wells wrote:

>On Fri, 8 Jan 1999, Graeme Cross wrote:
>
>>Jason, there is too much potential here for abuse.
>
>Perhaps. I say that we already trust ourselves to not abuse the lists.
>
>Also, the description of the possible solution was incredibly simple. As a
>check against abuse there could be a tally of spamthread commands. Two
>strikes and your out.
>
>>mailing list spam becomes negligible.
>
>Nearly all of my spam comes from these lists. Granted, spam is a low 
>percentage of my total traffic. I thought maybe my idea could help the
>people on the lists help themselves as well as the postmaster.

The problem is that the lists are open - AFAIK you can post to the FreeBSD
lists without being subscribed to them.

While I understand the reasons behind this, the policy assists spammers.

It would also allow abuse of a spamthread feature: once the feature became
known, a simple posting by some 3l33t d00d on alt.2600 and you would have
every idiot on the web sending spamthreads to the lists.

Your fundamental idea is great, but it would need to be carefully 
implemented:

1. Only a subscribed person could send the command

2. You could have a blacklist of people forbidden from sending the 
   spamthread command (as you say, two strikes and you're out)

3. Certain key subjects could never be spamthreaded (eg. freebsd!)

Cheers
Graeme

--
Graeme Cross 
Water Studies Centre, Monash University           Phone: +61 3 990 54089
Clayton, Victoria, Australia



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