At 7:48 AM -0600 4/29/03, Vernon Schryver wrote:
I didn't intend to say that anything is perfect, but to point out that
the users of the SBL, RBL+, and even the kookiest blacklist (there
are plenty) are not the people who complain that the current tools
are inaccurate or as Ms. Olson insisted, "prone to being arbitrary."
Instead, almost all of those who make those complaints are people like
Ms. Olson who do not like having their messages blocked.
Please, use a little logic.
1) A number of blacklist users on this list (myself included) have
complained that they are arbitrary and unrelable.
2) Who did you expect to complain other than people who "do not like
having their messages blocked." If you don't care, you aren't going
to complain. Of *course* bulkmailers will complain loudest--it's
their business at state. If it happens to me it's just a damned
annoyance. (Like every time I send email to my aunt, and have to
remember not to use a somewhere.com address because some idiot took
offesnse at my .sig when I asked them to remove the block.)
> Those tokens do not tell you the complaint level against the vendor
or the particular list.
Rejecting spam is a boolean choice. You will either filter a message
and so never see it or you will see it. Boolean choices are only
complicated by analog inputs. I have never ending problems with people
not understanding how to set the "bulk" threshold in DCC clients.
It is boolean only because you've made it so. The fact of the matter
is that lists vary in their quality. Ignoring that fact ignores the
reality that the person doing the blocking has no knowledge of the
desires of the recipient. That's the reality of a large ISP, and
it's not likely to change. Therefore they need to make a choice
percentage choice based on the probability that a given message is
wanted. When humans are involved, boolean goes out the window.
> Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. But why don't we withhold
> judgement until we have details.
What odds and stakes would you like to bet on whether Barry Shein is right?
Barry is an excellent weathervane--but that doesn't tell me whether
I'm looking at a breeze or a hurricane. If he's right then we are
doomed. Since I don't see much point in operating under that
assumption, I'll bet the other way.
--
Kee Hinckley
http://www.messagefire.com/ Junk-Free Email Filtering
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/ Writings on Technology and Society
I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
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