On Thu, May 16, 2002 at 06:15:07PM -0500, Skip Montanaro wrote: > > Dan> IMHO the mailing list should reject messages from nonsubscribers. > Dan> I thought it already did. > > > I agree, however I think the current stable version of Mailman (2.0.x) > currently only allows the list admin to hold messages, which then have to be > reviewed by a human.
It's not a software limitation; it's FSF policy. See: http://www.gnu.org/prep/mailinglists.html#Spam It would seem that automated filtering is unacceptable to them, whether content-based, open-relay detection, restricting posts to subscribers, or whatever. But moderation is ok. So is providing information to help subscribers to filter; they already add headers like this to messages from open relays: X-RBL-Warning: (relays.ordb.org) This mail was handled by an open relay - please visit <http://ORDB.org/lookup/?host=211.152.181.131> I guess their underlying goal is that posts may be rejected, but only by a human, never by a program. Info-cvs got really bad, probably a dozen spams a day. Even then, the only option the GNU folks would consider was to make it a moderated list -- RMS himself said so. This was done a little over a month ago, with a loose policy that basically just filters out spam from non-subscribers (i.e. only non-subscribers' posts are held for approval in the first place). Things have been a *lot* better since this kicked in. > That said, I know there is some spam control. bug-automake sends me > email periodically telling me to approve or reject some suspicious > email. > > I don't have the password, though, so it is just accumulating. Heh. The new info-cvs moderator said there were 250-odd messages in the queue when he took it over, dating back as far as 2000. -- | | /\ |-_|/ > Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | / Anyone who swims with the current will reach the big music steamship; whoever swims against the current will perhaps reach the source. - Paul Schneider-Esleben