Okay, perhaps it could use a better acronym. It's 0200, I just got
off an airplane ("Look ma, no wake turbulence!"), and that's the best
I could think of at the moment.
Credit where credit is due: The original suggestion for this idea was
Rick Vandenberg's, posted to SPAM-L. Initially, I thought it was
merely an amusing post on a more or less amusing thread.
But no more. I'm becoming more and more convinced that this is An
Idea Whose Time Has Come(tm).
The original post to SPAM-L, repeated here without permission, except
that I'm pretty sure Rick won't mind <g>:
** Sometime around 12:03 -0800 11/15/01, Rick Vandenberg said:
>[Only_slightly_tongue_in_cheek_mode = ON]
>
>I propose that a new on-line database be created, listing the email
>addresses of people who have exhibited any of the following behaviour
>with respect to lists:
>
>A) Inability to unsubscribe through whatever mechanism exists (this
>might be a result of no web access, no email access, whatever other
>technical reason there may be)
>
>B) Abuse complaints for no apparently reasonable explanation
>
>C) Clueless activity
>
>Then, whenever some subscription or unsubscription activity is
>generated, you programmatically query the database and if a match is
>found, you flag the activity and make sure the list owners take a close
>look at whatever is happening.
>
>This would help locate problems before they become a big issue. Of
>course, this would probably be viewed as an invasion of privacy by most
>folks.
Hell, MAPS is "an invasion of privacy." I propose we use the MAPS
model -- [pre-authorized] list owners can post to, and query, the
system. Perhaps the requirements to be able to query will not be
quite as strict as those to post to the system.
Other thoughts on this thread, also posted by other list-managers
members, also re-posted here without permission:
On Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 07:38:52PM -0500, Nick Simicich wrote:
> Can we add people who subscribe to a list that sends them an info file that
> prohibits test messages in LARGE PRINT, and then they immediately send a
> test message to the list to "verify that they are subscribed"?
** Sometime around 20:30 -0500 11/15/01, Rich Kulawiec said:
>Oh my yes. Yes, yes, yes and YES.
>
>How about people that (a) do not read the large print notice that specifies
>that all traffic should be in ASCII text and (b) that means no HTML
>and (c) that all attachments, including HTML, will be stripped from
>all messages, and then (1) send a message consisting entirely of an HTML
>attachment and then (2) claim the mailing list is broken because
>their message came out blank?
>
>How about the person who (a) sent a message to the list (b) didn't see
>it come through the list in a few minutes so (c) he sent it again
>and then (d) repeated steps a, b, and c [roughly] 30-40 times in
>rapid succession before moving on to (e) forwarding me a copy of every
>single one of them accompanied by a claim that the mailing list
>was broken when in fact (1) his ISP's outbound mail queue had been
>temporarily and purposefully halted while they shuffled a few things
>that night and (2) once that queue was restarted, ALL of those messages
>began to flush through very, very quickly, and (3) I got nastygrams from
>*other* subscribers asking me why I hadn't pre-emptively removed
>the first person from the list "as soon as he started this nonsense".
>
>There. I do believe it's working; good. That'll keep you going for now.
>
>:-)
>
>(There is no spam, you are receding)
>---Rsk
My comments on SPAM-L:
I can implement it. I think that the list managers who can post to
the system would have to be approved, probably through some form of
nomination from a list owner who is already approved to use the
system. As we've seen recently, you can't let just anyone post to the
system. Posts would have to be made via FTP for security.
The lists could easily be downloadable via e-mail (what else?) using
an AR, and then just dropped into the list server's "banned" database.
I can implement the entire system with some simple perl scripts. Only
problem is, I'm about to start a geographic (i.e., 3-D) relocation,
and won't have time to get to this until probably January. If someone
else antes up in the meantime, I'd be happy to provide server space
for the rig.
(The more I think about this, the more I think it will have to be FTP
both ways, in order to control who may access the list.)
Is it perhaps just that I'm running on too little sleep, or does this
genuinely sound like a pretty good idea? Sure, there are enough
clueless idiots on the 'Net that the cross-correlation between lists
might be small -- but even one or two "saves" could be significant.
Heck, one in particular would have saved me some headaches *and*
saved SPAM-L a 126-post thread on merits of contacting the owner of a
mailing list (to which you have been subscribed for several years)
_prior_ to filing a spam complaint.
Comments welcome. But please, no spam complaints. ;-)
__________________________________________________________________________
Vince Sabio [EMAIL PROTECTED]
