ADMIN: sad but needed anti-spam measures being implemented

[Perry E. Metzger]

Moderator's Note:

One of the main delays I have in moderating the list has been the
massive increase in spam that has happened in the last six months. I
have had to wade through first two or three spams per real list
message, and then five or ten, and finally one hundred or more. Most
days, I simply didn't have time or the stomach to deal with it.

I was leaving the list with deliberately low levels of certain kinds
of protection at the gate (like not blocking mail from
non-subscribers) because I didn't want to stop announcements from
third parties or anonymous contributions to the list. Unfortunately, I
can no longer do that -- it has just become too difficult to deal
with.

As of yesterday, I implemented some low level blocks on the SMTP
server the list is hosted on that prevent most unrepliable addresses
from sending mail in. Within the next few days, I intend to block all
postings from non-subscribing addresses or which contain certain kinds
of content that I've been blocking anyway (such as HTML formatted
email.)

I realize this will inconvenience some of you, and I'm sorry about
that, but I just can't deal with the work any more without taking some
steps like this.

At one time, I assumed that law enforcement "needs" would be the
reason anonymity died on the internet, but now it appears that
spammers have done the anti-privacy job for them.

Perry

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