[svlug] (forw) Post to svlug-announce; my error

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Mar 07, 2006 at 11:20:30AM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> For the record, (1) a fair amount of spam gets held for review, daily.

I have the same problem for LUGOD's mailing lists.


> That gets discarded (not rejected, for numerous reasons including forged
> senders).

Personally, I've set them to 'discard' with notifications sent to me.
On those rare occasions where a legitimate post gets sent by a non-subscriber
(or their incorrect address), I simply forward it on their behalf, and/or
send them a note instructing them to subscribe to the list, or use their
subscribed address when sending.

That way, the 99% of it that IS spam just disappears.  (It isn't held by
the mailing list software, and once I delete it from my list-admin-related
inbox, it's gone :^) )


> If the claimed From: sender seems likely to repeat and seems
> not legit (bearing in mind header forgeries), then I set autodiscard for
> future posts with that "From:" header.

I do that on lists where I _do_ hold-for-approval, in cases where I do see
mulitple post attempts from the same address.  (The newer mailman does a WAY
better job at presenting all of this stuff than older onces, thankfully!)


> (2) Legit posters frequently
> post from non-subscribed addresses, resulting in such mail being held
> for review.  That mail gets approved, and the From: sender autoapproved
> for the future (so repeats will go through without delay).  

On lists where I autodiscard, I cannot do this.  OTOH, I also like to keep
the 'auto-approved' list as small as possible. :^)


> MY personal aim is to ruthlessly intercept spam, ensure that member
> (legit) mail doesn't even cross my virtual desk to the extent possible,
> and make the process transparent, fast, and minimal.  In doing that, I 
> answer to the elected officers and am charged with implementing their
> policies, which I try to keep current on the Web site's pages on that
> subject.  (Fortunately, they are pretty well established, by now.)

Your above description of how you administer the list would be good to have
written down, if it's not already.  (Crud, I'm not sure LUGOD has exact list
admin'ing instructions written down, come to think of it!)

This is so that when the current admin (you, in SVLUG's case, me in
LUGOD's case) decide they're sick of the task, someone else can pick
it up pretty quickly. :^)

-bill!