Tristan, Sunday, January 23, 2005, 9:58:15 AM, Matt responded to: MK> At 11:34 AM 1/23/2005, Tristan Miller wrote: >>I'd like to propose a new rule to help SpamAssassin decide whether >>or not a given message is spam. ...
MK> The only problem with simple comp rules like this one is that MK> spammers quickly realize it exists and start abusing the rule. ... I agree with Matt, but temper that with the realization that a) many of us have private rules which aren't published, and b) the more complex those rules are, the more reliable they can be (ie: they're harder for spammers to fake successfully). c) SARE has the ability to modify our rules files quickly, so if a rule works well today, but spammers begin to abuse it tomorrow, by Wednesday we can flip the rule's score to zero or even negative, depending on our spam statistics. If anyone knows enough about the characteristics of the X-Face header to enable us to create a /good/ rule about it, please let me know offlist, and maybe we can make something work. I've been thinking about putting together a SARE rules file for negative scoring rules, which would get mass-checked and rescored once or twice a week, to prevent (or at least adjust for, and maybe take advantage of) abuse. If anyone else has ideas for rules that might be suitable for such a rules file, again, send them off-list. Thanks. Bob Menschel
