Re: Spam on the list

From: Seth Arnold (sarnoldat_private)
Date: Fri Aug 29 2003 - 22:32:33 PDT

  • Next message: Crispin Cowan: "Re: Spam on the list"

    On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 10:36:03PM -0400, John S. Wolter wrote:
    > Would it be ok with the list if I approach them about providing 
    > Anti-Spam services?  The service interjects itself just before EMail 
    
    This doesn't sound like a great deal to me. (a) spamassassin is free --
    this service is $20/month. (maybe your friendship will hook up something
    cheaper..) (b) spamassassin does not involve modifying DNS records --
    this service does. That means spamassassin can be turned on and off with
    no latency, but this service could persist in use for days after the
    decision is made to turn it off. (c) This use of MX is bypassable, and
    easily so; connecting directly to the list server and sending spam to the
    list will still work great. (d) They report a false positive rate of less
    than 0.1% -- ouch. I'm used to zero false positives from spamassassin.[1]
    
    The downside to spamassassin, of course, is that it needs periodic
    updating of its rulesets. Some distributions provide easy updates for
    spamassassin rules (debian, gentoo), and other users could use CPAN to
    update -- my personal complaints of CPAN aside, I'll admit it mostly
    works well.
    
    I can't speak for our list admins, but I doubt they'll jump for it.
    
    [1]: I realize this is my own experience. However, I've received over 44
    megabytes of spam since June first that wasn't moderated through a mail
    list; I moderate four moderate-spam-traffic lists that have received
    over 4800 mails held for moderation. There were several false positives,
    however these were induced by mailman's "suspicious header" rule. All
    were from one person with a thankfully easy-to-recognize address. :)
    
    
    
    -- 
    The Bill of Rights: 7 out of 10 rights haven't been sold yet! Contact
    your congressman for details how *you* can buy one today!
    
    
    

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