[Elecraft] E-mail Warning ...

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

> You can just address an email to the list 
> server. And anyone can spoof the sender address so that a 
> message appears to come from a registered subscriber. 

Spam to the list is not a problem.  It is not that a spam  
filter in the incoming SMTP server is stopping the spam;  
the spammers are simply too lazy (or don't know how) to 
spoof subscriber addresses. 

Subscriber white listing, html blocking (text only posting), 
and attachment blocking are satisfactory for the vast majority 
of special interest e-mail reflectors ... and I've never had 
a general interest e-mail reflector block and e-mail for a 
single word.  When a single word like r e p l i c a t e is 
sufficient to cause a posting to be blocked what's next? 
Transceiver? Radio? CW?  Elecraft?   After all, blocking 
"amateur" would certainly stop a large amount of spam from 
adult oriented web sites. 

It is entirely unprofessional for the operator of an amateur 
radio oriented web service to aggressively implement content 
filtering of the type encountered here.  At the very least 
content filtering should be contextually based and never 
rely on single word exclusion lists.

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV 
    


> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Julian, G4ILO
> Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 1:02 PM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] E-mail Warning ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Joe Subich, W4TV-3 wrote:
> > 
> > It's not that all postings are being bounced.  QTH.NET has
> > instituted a bunch of new spam filters in this e-mail servers. 
> > Those filters include filtering on INDIVIDUAL WORDS.  For 
> > example, the post I was trying to send included the word 
> > "r e p l i c a t e."  It had been QUOTED from a post by 
> > VP8NO.  However, my response and a follow-up response by 
> > VP8NO both bounced.  I have just resent that posting with 
> > the "offending" word replaced by a synonym.  
> > 
> > The paranoid behavior of the owners or QTH.net is making
> > all lists on this server practically useless.  I wonder if 
> > there are any offending words in this post?  
> > 
> > 
> 
> It has always filtered on individual words. Perhaps some new 
> words have been added. The problem is that email reflectors 
> are an outdated technology from the days when spam was not an 
> issue. There is no requirement to log in to a system before 
> you can post. You can just address an email to the list 
> server. And anyone can spoof the sender address so that a 
> message appears to come from a registered subscriber. A spam 
> filter is the only way to stop such attempts. Perhaps the one 
> used by QTH.NET is particularly dumb, but I don't think any 
> spam filter is 100% accurate.
> 
> -----
> Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222.
> http://www.g4ilo.com/ G4ILO's Shack   
> http://www.ham-directory.com/ Ham
> Directory    http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html KComm for 
> Elecraft K2 and K3 
> -- 
> View this message in context: 
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> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> 
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