From: Andrzej Filip <anfi(_at_)Box43(_dot_)pl>
...
For me /dev/null redirection of messages "classified as spam" breaks RFC
(at least spirit of it).
...
We all agree that even marginally legitimate mail needs a DSN
and that SMTP 5yz status codes are better than DSNs.
However, it is all and always the responsibility of the people running
the SMTP server. Mail senders and third parties have no standing to
complain if mail targets send some or all mail to /dev/null. They
are free to do that with software in MTAs and MUAs or manually by just
hitting delete. Whether they act wisely or foolishly, or whether it
is a mistake or a careful wise or foolish plan, it is the right and
responsibility of the mail target, not the mail sender.
Besides the recently mentioned example of AOL choosing /dev/null
instead of DSNs, there are other cases where automated /dev/null is
the best choice for mail. For example, I have more than 1000 spam
traps of invalid (almost all have never been valid) addresses. Any
and all mail sent to them is unsolicited. Mail sent to them is spam
with propability larger than 99.999%, which is far better than the
technical reliability of email today or in the good ol' days. If mail
to those addresses generated DSNs or 5yz responses, some spammers
would stop sending to them. That would hurt my spam filtering efforts.
Thus, it is best that mail to those addresses goes to /dev/null
(except for representative samples that are archived on CDROM so
that I can respond to lying spammers demanding changes to my blacklist.)
Vernon Schryver vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com
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