Messages in this thread | ![/](/images/icornerl.gif) | | Date | Sat, 9 Aug 2003 20:55:20 +0300 | From | Matti Aarnio <> | Subject | Re: Spammers |
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Cross-posted to a few of vger's lists, because this is a popular thing, and people need to be reminded about proper reaction to spams on these lists: NONE (but do read onwards)
Reply is INTENTIONALLY directed to vger's postmasters: we have a small group of BOFHs running the filters, if you don't like something of what we do, you have to convince us, discussion and democracy in a list won't alter our policies - instead it might get BOFHish treatment ...
On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 06:52:59PM +0200, Vladimír T?ebický wrote: > Hello, > > Have you also noticed spammers attacking this mailing lists? I > don't know whether are they registered subscribers or whether it > is required for people to be registered as a subcribers so that > they could post to the mailling list. > > In attachment there is one of the most recent spams I received.
DON'T!
Spammers post everywhere, and we do _intentionally_ run lists as open-for-posting, which necessitates retroactive filter addition, in case a new strain of spams is seen.
This is one of the topics in the linux-kernel FAQ, which has a lot of general things for all of vger's lists: http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Running lists _closed_ doesn't solve the thing either. It would be enough for a spammer to fake source address that is known poster to a list. We have to use message content analysis, but that isn't very effective, when the content is extremely short (one web URL, or some such..) Main reason to not to close the lists is that it would be a royal pain for managers, and for users...
Lattest spammer strains (software scare peddlers, various advance fee fraudsters, etc.) are fairly well filtered away, but still something does leak thru. A _lot_ more goes to the trash-pile. Some rare legitimate bits end up in there too, but we try to have a moment to inform sender's of those about the issue. We DO NOT approve any postings.
We rather tolerate a bit of spams, and filter them away from repeating. But remember that list-owners don't read all lists, so sometimes contacting: postmaster@vger.kernel.org with samples would expedite problem solving. Posting to LISTS won't help!
Note: VGER has web-service, try it! See Majordomo-info.
Oh yes, anything short of a cordial letter to postmasters to ask changes in our policies can fairly easily result in BOFHish treatments.. (usually ignoring) .. don't whine!
Trivial changes might get made instantly, but things needing a lot of work are prone to take a long time, if they will ever be considered beyond work guestimation. Volunteers for this most thankless of tasks (you hardly ever get thanks, but tons of complaints, of course!) can also offer themselves to us.
With _enough_ people, we might be able to turn the lists into moderated (natural intelligence filter), with decent through- put delays. Consider doing that for at least for a couple of years, and many hours per day ... somehow I think that is completely unfeasible approach on voluntary basis.
> -- > Regards, > Vladimir Trebicky mailto:trebicky@xhost.cz
/Matti Aarnio -- co-postmaster of vger.kernel.org - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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