Re: [Bug-gnubg] too much spam?

[Joern Thyssen]

On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 02:47:13PM +0100, Jim Segrave wrote
> On Tue 06 Jan 2004 (22:11 +0000), Joern Thyssen wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > It's possible to change the mailing list so only members may post. This
> > should effectively reduce the spam to nil, but will make it more
> > difficult for a user to report a problem, since the user will have to
> > subscribe first.
> > 
> > Comments?
> 
> Move the mailing list to a machine where we can pass incoming mail
> through spamassassin prior to passing it to the mailing list. Mail not
> tagged is then passed directly to the list exploder. Mail from
> specific sender addresses (moderators) is sent directly to the
> exploder. Mail tagged as possible spam is forwarded to a moderator
> (I'd be willing to be one) and, if OK, the moderator can resumbit it
> and it will be accepted.

I think the problem is that gnu.org does not have a spam filter.

> This should reduce the levels sufficiently. I don't know if we could
> do this on gnu.org, although I'd guess other lists hosted there have
> the same problems. I assume address@hidden is now available on one
> of the 250million email address CDs somewhere.
> 
> I am very much against closing posting to non-subscribers.
> 
> I would not be happy if I were a casual user who simply ran into a
> little problem and I could not easily report it or get help without
> having to subscribe to a mailing list (with the extra steps of
> confirmed opt-in). I might then be doubly unhappy when I began to
> receive emails about the finer points of gtk or generating METs, when
> my entire problem was not knowing how to import a match from FIBs.

An alternative solution instead of rejecting message from unsubscribed
persons, is to "hold" such messages. The message is not posted until
it's approved by a moderator. This is like a manual spam filter. In
fact, with some procmail magic it might be possible to automate the
process.

Jørn

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