Re: [Caml-list] posting policy and spam

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 10:24:49AM +0100, Xavier Leroy wrote:
> There have been several complains recently about spam getting through
> the caml-list.
> 
> For your information, the list is filtered through SpamOracle, and the
> posting address receives several hundred spams a day.  Due to spammers
> getting more clever, the efficiency of the filtering went from perfect
> to about 99%.  That's enough to let significant amounts of spam slip
> through.

Well, on a similar subject, is there any chance of implementing a
workaround in spamoracle to counter those spams specifically designed to
fool the bayesian filters ? You know, those who have 4 lines of random
words in a text attachement, and then some html spam. 

I don't know if the bayesian filters or a modification thereof is able
to counter this kind of email, but i don't think so.

> By popular demand, I just put the list in "subscribers only" posting
> mode.  That should get rid of almost all spam.  (Keep in mind,
> however, that a forged From address on a spam can match that of a list
> subscriber; it happened in the past.)
> 
> The problem with the "subscribers only" policy is that many
> subscribers receive the list at one address and post through another.
> This will no longer work.  In the past, posts coming from
> non-subscribers were run through a moderator.  Moderation is a boring
> and time-consuming task for which we no longer have volunteers.

What about adding a way to whitelist a given email address, so you could
post from a list of email addresses you have previously declared,
without necessarily being subscribed to all of those.

Another idea would be to provide all subscribed persons some hash value
they can add to a specific header, which is then removed by the list
software once it is checked to be a valid one. Could easily be automated
on both sides, and would allow to post from everywhere.

Friendly,

Sven Luther

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