Re: Protected archive Re: [SPAM] Re: Surfree

Ian Andrew Bell (belli@bctel.ca)
Wed, 03 Jun 1998 10:44:29 -0700

At 08:36 AM 6/3/98 -0700, Dr. Ernest N. Prabhakar wrote:
>Ah, but you forget that FoRK's primary method of reproduction nowadays
>is from people hitting the archive and being sucked in by one tidbit
>or other. And that one of the reasons for the list's existence is to
>explore the evolution of a electronic community in the fishbowl of a
>public archive.
>
>Protecting the archive 'a priori' is equivalent to putting up a 'no new
>members' sign. We'd only get people who already know someone else,
>which is hardly any fun at all.
>
>Viva the new blood!

I agree. A true community does not lock out potential residents (except
for Beverly Hills). I think that putting all of the smarts in the mail
server is the way to go. In terms of coping with spam, there's lots of
opportunities to filter SPAM on the way in.

There are a number of cool tools (depending on what XeNT is running) that
are useful at: <http://spam.abuse.net/tools/mailblock.html>.

I also read about the MAPS realtime blacklist and, if I were still running
mail servers for a living, this would be my pick for filtering spam. My
one caveat is that in many cases MAPS has been used as a political tool to
pressure ISPs into securing their mail servers. At various times Netcom,
AOL, and Sprint have been on the RBL. That's not always a bad thing.

URL: <http://maps.vix.com/>

-Ian.

_________________________________________________________________
Ian Andrew Bell belli@bctel.ca
BC TEL Interactive (604) 482-5708

"Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot."