Lloyd Tennison wrote:
> The problem is with AOL's new policy for their feedback loop program that 
> took effect September 1st.  For the last several years of the program, if 
> someone reported an email as SPAM, AOL sent a copy of that email, complete 
> with headers, with the AOL member's address that reported the email as 
> SPAM.  
> 
> Now, they redact that email address.  They redact the username.  They redact 
> anything they think could be the username. (Including mailing list headers 
> like Mailman - with full VERP.)

On the face of it, it seems to be a prudent move on AOL's part toward 
reducing the chance the 'whistleblower' is retaliated against.

Not an unreasonable choice.

 > This makes it more difficult to remove
> people who decided they no longer wanted to receive the email and were too 
> lazy to unsubscribe.
>

Not sure that is relevant.

If a list was genuinely of-interest, and opt-in, and remains well-run, 
it should be less hassle to a user to unsubscribe than to file a spam 
report.

> Many other ISP's offer similar services, (Microsoft/Hotmail/MSN, Comcast, 
> Excite, Road Runner, etc.) but they include the full headers unredacted, 
> just as AOL did for years.  The feedback loop is a requirement of being 
> whitelisted with AOL - so it is a necessary and valuable tool - at least it 
> was.  Now to use it one must search  exim_mainlog for the id of the email 
> that was sent to the AOL member.
> 

A) Easily automated

B) Exim's mainlog is not the best place to look

Where you want to grep is in the *MLM* logs and/or archives.

There will be far few entries to scan, as you start with only the 
specific list and time-frame in question, not all traffic in both 
directions.

> Being able to obfuscate, or easily encrypt on send and decrypt on receive 
> would save a great deal of time.

Not an Exim issue.

Work with your MLM software. It can easily add recipient-unique and 
poster-unique 'fingerprints' - coded or otherwise - that will almost 
certainly survive redaction.

Not limited to placement in headers. Message-body head and foot add-ins 
work too.

> It also makes staying whitelisted easier, 
> and my servers staying whitelisted is very important to me.
> 

If you are getting blacklisted (or de-whitelisted) it is the 
maintainer/user/abuser of the particular list in question you need to 
'educate'.

And of course, insuring that the lists are configured to prevent 
outsiders posting spam.

The real-time 'QC' copies you get of activity for every list you host 
should keep you well ahead of all that before you have a need to de-code 
an AOL report.

If you are NOT seeing copies of posts, errors, moderation, sub/unsub and 
confirmations, then your 'VIP' list is not getting as much attention as 
the average university, social club, or other 'volunteer-operated' list.

Nursemaiding an MLM is not a 'fire and forget' business.

Bill


> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: W B Hacker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: exim users <[email protected]>
> Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:24:49 +0800
> Subject: Re: [exim] Looking to Create and Addtional Header Record to Solve 
> AOL   Redaction Problems
> 
>> Lloyd Tennison wrote:
>>> Based on  To: .  Because of AOL redacting email addresses from SPAM 
> reports, 
>>> I thought that if a new  Envelope-to: (different name) was added, and the 
>>> user name was split into pieces and then added some weird characters in 
> the 
>>> middle, AOL (and others) would not be able to redact.  (From an earlier 
>>> thread, Envelope-To would probably not work.)
>>>
>>> Example:
>>>
>>> Call the new header X-Ref
>>>
>>> X-Ref: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>> X-Ref: [email protected]
>>>
>>> This would then work for both mailing lists and individual messages.  Any 
>>> thoughts on this?  Other options also solicited.
>>>
>> ??
>>
>> Not exactly sure what 'problem' this is intended to resolve.
>>
>> Or why it is seen to be necessary. Or assumed to 'work'.
>>
>> Background? Environment? Goals?
>>
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>
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> 


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