The spam problem is solely one with the SMTP protocool.
Not quite, it also comes with SMS messages, and telephone calls
and... well pretty much evey protocol where the conversation is
initiated by someone other than the recipient.
No one
claims that IMAP or POP have a major (or even minor) role in
originating spam.
Apart from Vernon when it suits the point he is trying to make.
The problem of spam email is as you point out unique to the hop
over the general internet. IMAP and POP are only ever used with
specific trusted sites that the user has selected.
Besides, the "pulling" of NNTP had nothing to do with controlling
netnews spam.
It gives the "pulling" server more control over the traffic it
accepts. Too much spam in alt.sex? Stop asking for it. That can be
done with NNTP, IMAP, and POP, as they permit the "pull" host to not
ask for traffic, and that traffic stops. It can't be done with SMTP.
NNTP has problems but they are not intrinsic to the concept or even
the protocol, take a look at slashdot, almost no spam ever appears
there (unless you count the editors plugging of personal agendas :-).
As I said in the first week this list started, a large part of the
spam problem is the design of the SMTP protocol. It is *designed* to
permit anonymous originators, lying about message authors, redirection
of traffic to anyone, and traffic amplification. No other network
protocol has all of these "features". As a result, no other protocol
has the continuing problem that SMTP has.
Genuinely anonymous communication is not that useful, what people really
want is some form of pseudonymity. They want to be able to carry on
conversations behind an assumed identity that cannot be connected to
the offline world.
People could always post anonymously on usenet, but Wizvax and pinet
were interesting because you could get confidential replies.
Phill
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg