Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 23:59:15 -0800 From: "Philip J. Koenig" <pjklist@ekahuna.com> To: Questions@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> Subject: Re: hub.freebsd.org spam policy Message-ID: <20020405075914777.AAA405@empty1.ekahuna.com@pc02.ekahuna.com> In-Reply-To: <20020404232540.A20328@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <20020404214543823.AAA153@empty1.ekahuna.com@pc02.ekahuna.com>; from pjklist@ekahuna.com on Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 01:45:43PM -0800
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On 4 Apr 2002, at 23:25, Kris Kennaway boldly uttered:
> On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 01:45:43PM -0800, Philip J. Koenig wrote:
>
> > Meanwhile, if messages like the following are any indication, these
> > "anti-spam" measures aren't even particularly effective for their
> > primary purpose.
>
> hub.FreeBSD.org bounces a spam email about once per second (yes, you
> read that right)..that's how "unnecessary" those "ineffective" rules
> are.
>
> I'm sure you'd much rather the odd one or two that still get through
> than tens of thousands of emails per day appearing in your mailbox.
>
> Kris
You're probably right (especially if all of those were addressed to
lists I'm subscribed to), and accurate statistics are always helpful.
On the other hand, there are other ways to accomplish spam filtering,
some of which (IMHO) are less likely to cause blocking to non-spam
messages.
Even the filtering method currently in use could probably continue to
be useful if some of the more over-generalized rules were removed.
Why freebsd.org is not using MAPS is beyond me - the founder of MAPS
(Paul Vixie) has AFAIK a long history with FreeBSD and I suspect they
would provide the service for free to them.
Maybe freebsd.org already uses some aspect of MAPS. About all I've
gotten info-wise as a result of my bringing up the issue is a lot of
defensive posturing on the list and in email. Here's an example from
the freebsd.org postmaster:
> [I asserted that freebsd.org was using spam assassin based on some
> list traffic I had seen]
>
> On Tue, 26 Mar 2002, Philip J. Koenig wrote:
>
> > the specifics so I can take it up with the "anti-spam" utility
> > authors. ("Spam-Assassin", if I'm not mistaken)
> >
>
> we dont use "Spam-Assassin". never have.
>
> [end of message]
A little curt I'd say, and not particularly chock full of helpful
information.
Apparently (just like the first ISP I had a run-in with about "anti-
spam" filters that blocked me from emailing friends and associates)
they want their measures to remain a closely-guarded secret.
--
Philip J. Koenig pjklist@ekahuna.com
Electric Kahuna Systems -- Computers & Communications for the New Millenium
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