On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 07:20:13PM -0500, ben hubbard wrote:
> This may be way out of left field, but I was thinking about it last night....
>
> Would it be possible to filter the mail in anyway with the mail list software
> at freebsd.org based on the subject lines? For example, for this message, the
> subject line would be
>
> Subject: [freebsd-stable] Re: Click on to meet someone you Click with
>
> or some variant. If it didn't have the [freebsd-stable] (change for whatever
> the list address was) then the the reply bounces with a polite "you need to
> put xxxx in your subject line" message to the original sender. This would
> stop the spam (since they usually have specific subject lines) and it would
> also (added bonus) make it easier for those of us that filter the incoming
> traffic from multiple lists to plop it all in the right folders.
>
> the flip side is that this adds complication. But is it really all that bad?
> If someone has to go find out the list address already anyway, they can read
> another line about the subject line, or worse, they just get the bounce back
> and get to send it again. Might also stop the various subscribe messages that
> end up in the list, too ;-)
>
> Of course, this may not be possible with the lsitserv software - it's not
> something I've ever worked with to any great extent before.
With mutt, to reply to this message, I press "g", hit enter, hit enter
again, press "y", then type my response.
In order to get a "[freebsd-stable] Re: ..." subject, I would have to
press "g", hit enter, hold down the arrow keys until it reaches the
front of the subject line, type "[freebsd-stable]", hit enter, press
"y", then type my response. The arrows and addition more than quadruple
the time it takes me to start typing a response.
Plus, I would have to clean up old subjects, lest to get
"[freebsd-stable] Re: [freebsd-stable] Re: [freebsd-stable] ..." ad
nauseum.
What you would find after a short time is that the most helpful
people--the people who answer many questions every day--will stop
responding as frequently. The overall usefulness of the list will
decline.
Also remember that a great deal of spam (at least most of the stuff that
comes to me) has my name as a greeting in the body, or in the subject
line. It would be trivial to automate the process of adding
[freebsd-stable] to the front of the subject line when the message is
sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] This would have us all working extra
for no reason.
--
Andrew Hesford
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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