Re: Combatting spam

["Paul M. Moriarty" <pmm@igtc.com>]

Mike Dynon writes:
> Unless I'm mistaken, anyone--list member or not--can post to
> celtics@igtc.com.  The difference is, only list members can view the
> postings.  That's why even if Paul ousts someone (as he did), it wouldn't
> absolutely stop the problem.  Well, here's hoping the "invasion" is over.
> 

control = 1/convenience 

I can turn on posting by members only, but it's too picky about matching
hostnames & domain names.  You have to be posting from the _exact_ address
from which you subscribed or it gets forwarded for approval.  I can also
turn on moderation, but that means that I have to read and approve _each_
article (which isn't going to happen).

In my "copious" spare time, I have been working on integrating procmail
filters into majordomo, which would provide extensive flexibilty in what to
weed out before it gets sent to the list.  It'll be a while before we see
this though (procmail is a mail filtering program that runs on UNIX
machines, majordomo is the program that runs this list).

When the rare event occurs that I have to remove somebody from the list, I
include that future e-mail sent to igtc.com will be considered unauthorized
use of computing resources owned by IGTC.  That's usually enough to convince
somebody's ISP to pull the account if postings continue.  This is why we
usually see that last of somebody once they're removed. 

The best way to get rid of trolls like birdsuck and celticsuck are to just
ignore them.  They feed on the negative energy that replying to them
generates.

Hope this helps clarify things.


-> Paul <-