[NCLUG] Proposal

[Jeff]

It seems like it'd be pretty easy to write a perl script that would
parse the messages in the archives and remove the addresses in the
'from' field and the message body, but if they span multiple databases,
it could take some pretty good hack skills...

Anyone want to try to put something together just for fun?  I'd be
willing to help with my very meager skills...

-Jeff

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 01:43, James DeWitt wrote:
> 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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