>What "spam patrol orgs" are you referring to? How do they do more harm >than good?
Since I don't keep on top of them any more, I hate to quote any specific names/URLs. But basically, in most of the mail admin directed writeups (news groups, lists servers, tech sites, whatever), for the most part, it is not uncommon to hear of massive complaints where people are incorrectly black listed because most of the spam "cops" are over zealous in blocking anything that might even be remotely connected to spam, or that they just don't personally like. And in most cases, once you are on a list, is is damn near impossible to get off (so god help you if you are incorrectly listed, or if someone forwarded your email because they felt like it because they just don't like you). Most of the spam groups don't bother to investigate the report... a report is good enough to be found guilty. Also, in most cases, legit email gets tossed out along with the spam on mass blocking sites. That is up to the users to decide if the lost legit email is worth the trade off. And then you get into the effort to do the reporting vs what you gain from doing it. Raise your hands all you users that dilligently report spam to some group and have seen a marked decrease in the spam you get. (and I don't mean your dropped 5 or 6 spams a week.... I mean you went from being flooded with it to get almost nothing... a decrease substantial enough to justify the time you spent forwarding and reporting the spam). So, I base my statement on the fact that the spam groups don't appear to be doing anything of value (spam isn't stopping or even slowing down), but LOTS of legit people are being caught up in the middle of it, and getting blocked or forced to spend a ton of time to get back off the lists. That to me says that in many cases, they are doing more harm than good. (that isn't to say there aren't some good ones out there, but that on a whole, they are anti-productive to use/support them). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
