[ NNSquad ] Re: Comcast Mail Blocking Issues Related to DynDNS

[Barry Gold <bgold@matrix-consultants.com>]

> Walt Daniels wrote:
>
> > The central common thread is a complete lack of transparency.

Barry Gold wrote:
> Amen to that, brother.  Spam filtering should be _available_ to users if 
> they want it, but it should not be turned on by default.  And users 
> should be able to fine-tune it -- set the level of match required before 
> messages are blocked or tagged as spam.

This is one of many examples of how spam hinders our ability to 
communicate by email.  It's not just the time people spend deleting a 
few dozen (or hundred or thousand, depending on how good their and their 
ISP's spam filtering is) messages.  It's the messages that don't get 
through because of well-intentioned but badly implemented spam filtering.

I run a mailing list that typically gets two messages a month.  The only 
way to get on the list is to write me and ask to be put on it.  (This is 
not automated, I edit the list with vi).

Two or three recipients are not getting their announcements because 
their ISPs either
  a) think my ISP (Nyx Net) is a spam source (Not bloody likely)
or
  b) have a mis-configured DNS and can't figure out that my sending 
host really exists.

During 2008, the list grew to over 50 names.  Now my mail program (elm) 
refuses to send mail to that many people at once, so I have to split up 
the list and send the message twice.  If the list gets much bigger I may 
have to transfer it to a Yahoo group or some other list server.  Not 
because I can't maintain the list, but because it's a pain to have to 
send the mail several times.

Not that that's really likely to happen.  How many people want to find 
out about filk sings held in Los Angeles?

So several people don't get mail they want, and I am inconienced in 
sending to the rest, because a relative few individuals(*) won't play by 
the rules that the rest of us abide by.

(*) Last I saw, the estimate was that 80% of spam came from four 
botnets.  That's _four_ people responsible for 80% of the problem.  Find 
those four people, put them under a court order to stay away from 
computers (as is sometimes done with accused crackers) and put them in 
jail if they violate it, and we wouldn't need all this.

 [ There are major privacy implications as well.  Due to often
   ham-fisted anti-spam policies of port blocking and routine or
   overly broad IP address blackholing, well-behaved non-commercial
   Internet users are typically prohibited from operating their own
   (secure) mail servers in practical ways.

      -- Lauren Weinstein
         NNSquad Moderator ]