[NCLUG] Proposal

[James DeWitt]

That's a good idea, but implementing it retroactively would be a problem.

Since early 2001, the NCLUG archiver (Mailman) has been set to remove
source email addresses in the postings.  However, addresses are still used
sometimes in message IDs.  These would have to be obfuscated consistently, 
or threading would be lost.  Also, some people put them in their signature, or
quoted message header, and some mailers add tags like:

X-WebMail-UserID:  foo at lamar.colostate.edu

We could close the archive to non-subscribers, but that is not hard to get
around, or run the archive through some program to remove the addresses.
But the addresses are already known and archived in n different databases,
like google's cache.  Your address could have been gathered from NCLUG, 
or some campus mailing.  

The most practical strategy seems to be using SpamAssassin, or requesting 
your sysadmin to do so.  I'm surprised that CSU hasn't had to start using it
long ago.  

Thanks,
James DeWitt


On Tuesday 10 June 2003 12:03 am, Daniel Miles wrote:
> I propose that we remove the e-mail addresses from the archive postings.
> My reasoning is as follows:
>
> Recently I've noticed a *huge* increase on the amount of spam I get in
> my inbox (it's gone from absolutly nothing to like 30 a day within a few
> weeks).
>
> Now, you can't press the "unsubscribe me" links because all that does is
> confirm to the spammers that they've hit an active e-mail address, it
> just makes your problem worse. However, I *was* interested in how they
> got my address since I gaurd it so closely...
>
> Google came up with a couple of things that I've posted to this list,
> apparently in the archives. I belive that spammers are using a
> harvesting program to get addresses and they've found us. :(
>
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