On 12/28/2010 12:14 PM, Warren Togami Jr. wrote:
Folks here are missing the point, that NJABL is catching not much of
anything, like less than 1% of spam, and with a relatively high FP
ratio. I don't understand this desire to keep such a poor performing
rule, especially when it costs a network query.
Warren let me give you a bit of political education.
When you go to www.njabl.org you get a nice folksy
explanation of what a blacklist is, how to get on it and how to get off
of it, and when you go to www.mailspike.net you get nothing other than
a fancy graphics page of a map of the world.
The issue with blacklists is such, I have a customer, I block that
customer's inbound e-mail because of a blacklist, I get a FP and now
my customer demands an explanation of why I blocked it.
I can point my customer to njabl.org and say "that site blocked it"
and my customer can then point his corespondent to njabl.org and
that corespondent can then point their boneheaded system admin to
njabl.org with a demand that said boneheaded system admin fix whatever
the problem is that is getting them listed.
In other words, sites like njabl.org help me, as the spam-blocking
system admin, shift the blame for a FP from me, to the actual
responsible party, ie: the system admin who is running the open
mailserver that sent the spam to my server in the first place.
But, sites like mailspike.net, because they are so stripped down,
actually do the reverse - they help concentrate the blame for the
FP on me, because they provide no support whatsoever for anyone using
them.
I do not deny mailspike.net is probably far better a bl than njabl.
I've used njabl for years and 8 years ago it was great but today it's
admin obviously has not bothered to keep up with maintainence on it.
But mailspike.net doesn't even have a list of criteria of how to
get off of it, and looking at their site you don't even really know
what the hell it is. If I were to tell a customer I blocked their
mail due to mailspike.net they would think I'm an idiot when they
went to that site to see what mailspike.net actually is.
This is yet another example, of which there are a plethora, in the
computer industry where a superior product or service, because it comes
in a plain brown wrapper, fails to obtain market share while an
inferior product or service, because it's slicked up, retains and gains
market share.
Apple Computer Company mastered this product marketing ages ago
when they slicked up FreeBSD & Next code, then came out with MacOS X
that is years behind current FreeBSD with it's internals. But clearly
some people, like the owners of mailspike.net, haven't got the message.
Just a thought.
Ted
Warren
