[WinMac] OFF-TOPIC: Re: OneList
Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Sun, 03 Oct 1999 13:03:39 -0400
Dear Hank,
I've found this person's (at your institution) to be false. ONELIST has a
privacy and a no-spam policy that is pretty strict.
Where I ran into problems *AS A MODERATOR* was when I (mistakenly) put the
Mac-NT list on 3 "list of lists" mailing list. Since I was the "contact
person" for the postings, I received about 3 to 6 spams per day for a
couple of weeks, but it then subsided. This was back in June of this year.
I guess you can say that "the proof is in the pudding:" I average over 100
email messages per day on my main account (expresso@snip.net), and I only
get about 1-2 spams per day... At most, in the last couple of months, I've
gotten maybe 4 in one day. Even with the Mac-NT list getting a nice writeup
by Sunbelt Software in their biweekly newsletter two weeks ago, with a
distribution of over 300,000, my "spam load" hasn't gone up. Stu was kind
enough to put the URL for signing up, but *not* my email address.
<shameless plug for SNiP>
Fortunately, my ISP, SNiP.net, maintains a basic spam blocking service.
The list of prohibited address,' servers, and domains is available at:
<http://www.snip.net/cgi-bin/spamblock.asp>
</shameless plug for SNiP>
There are several keys to eliminating "spam exposure" should this (WinMac)
list be migrated. This is broken in half - Protecting the list users from
spam, and the moderator from spam:
PROTECTING THE MODERATOR:
1) Create a separate moderator POP3 account - Free public email servers
such as Yahoo or Hotmail will suffice for this duty;
2) Don't broadcast the list to a "list of lists;"
PROTECTING THE LIST SUBSCRIBERS:
1) Watch who subscribes to the list. I have the Mac-NT list settings set
to send me an email with a notice of subscription & notice of
unsubscription. At present, I monitor & archive these notices for
suspicious address,' while allowing people to post immediately; but there
certainly is an option to disallow posting until manually approved by the
moderator. This step will help stop spamming to the list itself;
2) Don't make the subscriber list available to anyone except the
moderator(s). This step will stop dead in it's tracks attempts by spammers
to find who the subscribers are.
With just a little common sense, it's quite easy to stop spam dead in its'
tracks when managing a listserv.
Yours truly,
Dan Schwartz
At 05:45 PM 9/30/99 -0700, Hank Harken replied to my original post:
>
>>Who you get to moderate the list (if anyone) is up to you, but I would
>>recommend using OneList.com to host it. I've found their servers to be
>>extremely fast, and their Web based administration & moderation is a
>>breeze. Plus, they have a feature that allows you to export your mailing
>>list to their server.
>
>A person at my institution is convinced that OneList distributes/sells
>email addresses. I don't know if that is true but I am very leery
>of using a commercial vendor unless the list membership is
>protected from being "marketed". I'm recognizing that the list
>membership is not entirely private already.
>
>- Hank
-----------------------------------------------------------------
While you're spamming me, don't forget to include these guys:
Chairman Reed Hundt: rhundt@fcc.gov Comm. James Quello: jquello@fcc.gov
Comm. Susan Ness: sness@fcc.gov Comm. Rachelle Chong: rchong@fcc.gov
US Postal Service: customer@email.usps.gov Fraud Watch: fraudinfo@psinet.com
Federal Trade Commission: consumerline@ftc.gov
Oh, and while you're at it, pound some sand too!
admin@loopback $LOGIN@localhost $LOGNAME@localhost $USER@localhost
$USER@$HOST -h1024@localhost root@mailloop.com
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