[Savannah-hackers-public] Setting default_member_moderation to yes for all lists?

[Bob Proulx]

Recently an address at yahoo.com subscribed to a large number of
mailing lists and then sent spam messages to them.  Because the
address was subscribed to the mailing list Mailman was configured to
send the messages along without delay and without filtering.

I would like to set default_member_moderation to yes on all of the
mailing lists.  That setting sets the hold for moderation bit for new
subscribers until it is cleared manually.  The effect is that someone
can subscribe but their first posting will be held for human review
the same as a non-subscriber.  Once they have posted a message and a
human listhelper has reviewed it they would clear the moderate bit for
that address.  Subsequent mail messages from them would be passed
through without delay and without filtering the same as it is done
now.

On many of the mailing lists the default_member_moderation is already
set to yes to protect against this problem.  I always set it on the
mailing lists that I watch to closely.  But so far it is far from
globally implemented.

By doing this initial hold it would avoid the types of spam attacks
that we are vulnerable to at this moment.  I fear that because of the
popularity of Mailman more attackers might automate this process and
slip more spam through the system.

I think we should ensure that default_member_moderation is set on
every list.  What do you think?

Bob