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Subject:
From:
Mike Berman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mike Berman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 23 Mar 1999 22:18:40 -0500
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Michael Feldman wrote:


> In my opinion, the best way to deal with spam is IGNORE IT! I don;t
> mean to SHOUT, but this ONE spam message has generated a whole days's
> worth of extra stuff.

This is true. Every time one spam message penetrates the list, there is more
wasted bandwidth in complaint mail than has _ever_ been taken up by actual
spam. I hate to add to that traffic, but as list administrator I thought you
might like to hear my point of view.


> We went around this loop a while ago. The consensus was that Team-Ada
> should be open to all comers, because it's an advocacy list and
> we don;t want to be hard to reach.

This is true. The overwhelming opinion was to keep the list open to all, not
just to subscribers. Restricting the list would create numerous problems in
posting when the originating address does not exactly match the one stored
on the list server.


> Let's leave it to the Team-Ada list owner to work with ACM to track
> down spammers.

Which we do. We have a spam filter that catches a lot of messages before
they are distributed. (Oddly enough, two other versions of the latest
message were caught by the filter. The rest got through.) For the occasional
message that does get distributed, I rummage through the headers and send
mail to the postmasters of the sites that the message traversed. These
postmasters have been extremely helpful.

Unfortunately, spammers are very resourceful and I doubt that any measure we
take would eliminate all spam. Please, as Mike Feldman has suggested, resist
the urge to spark an endless debate over each and every spam mail you
receive via the list. It is these discussions, not the spam itself, which
result in unsubscriptions from an otherwise high quality content discussion.

Mike Berman
Team Ada list administrator

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