Rumor has it that Jay West may have mentioned these words:
>I have noticed a few pieces of spam lately on the list. Our mail server
>checks all the normal relaying databases, so that has kept most of the spam
>out for ages. However, now a few have trickled in and it bugs me a bit. In
>the past it has been suggested that the list be closed - ie. only
>subscribers could post to the list. I have always avoided that because
>fairly frequently someone will post from a non-subscriber that they have
>equipment available, and I don't want to take that opportunity away from the
>list. I see two options:
>
>1) I can close the list from non-subscriber posts
>or perhaps
>2) I can require non-subscriber posts be approved before I send them to the
>list
Jay, I don't want to insult your intelligence, but I've been doing
listserver & mail server admin for ~~7 years, so if you do need some
advice, lemme know.
There is a 3rd option, and it's called TMDA, or Tagged Message Delivery
Agent. (or pretty darned close) It can go right with your list, and
automatically whitelist anyone who's subscribed, but anyone who's not
subbed to the list, the message is held in a seperate queue for around 48
hrs. or so (it's configurable) and a confirmation message is sent back to
the original sender. If the confirmation is replied to, then the original
message gets submitted to the list. If it's not, after the timeout period
the message just falls into the bit-bucket behind the server. ;-)
>I would prefer to do number 2 above. However, this does give me the ability
>to occasionally see available equipment before the rest of the list. Of
>course I wouldn't abuse this, but - I don't even want that perception.
>So.... advice please?
TMDA would not give you any opportunity of "early browsing", as you
wouldn't see the message any sooner than the rest of us. (Unless you were
combing thru the "waiting for confirmation" queue, and you'd have to catch
the message before confirmation which for most folks wouldn't take long.)
TMDA can be configured to automatically whitelist anyone who confirms their
first message, then is trusted after that so the only time they'd see a new
confirmation message is if they mailed from a webmail address, or it can be
set up to confirm every time an email arrives from a non-subscriber.
Check here:
http://software.libertine.org/tmda/
Oh, it can also be set up in a "blacklist" configuration as well.
HTH,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
Received on Thu Feb 21 2002 - 09:07:31 GMT