Charles,
> My problem is that a significant fraction of the spam I get are
> challenges to some forged email purporting to be from a domain I
> control. To the point where *all* challenges are immediately bit
> bucketed.
>
> It's not that my email to you is "not that important" it's that I
> cannot easily tell your challenge from spam.
This problem is neatly solved by TMDA.
Here's how it works:
When you send an email to me, TMDA tags it with a random-looking
string. The challenge will contain this string, so *your* filter
can let easily correlate the tag in the challenge with the string
it sent in the original email.
Thus, it is trivial for your email agent to distinguish
between a fake challenge and a real one in a fully
automated way. Read the TMDA docs for more information.
> Challenge response is an automatic noise amplifier in an already noisy
> environment. You are contributing to everyone else's problem in
> trying to solve yours.
Again, I believe this is incorrect (see above).
Speaking of amplification, you seem to have transformed
a concern into an accusation rather quickly. If your human
protocol does not include politeness, there's very little
point in discussing much else.
-Jon
