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Re: [Asrg] 6. Proposals - A Brief Defence of "Pull"

2003-10-01 22:27:30
Brett Watson wrote:
I started writing a point by point response to the previous message in this thread, but abandoned it halfway through as it appeared to be degenerating into extreme silliness. I'll therefore make a brief "closing argument" instead.

In the fight against spam, it is worth considering the use of a pull-based transfer of data at some point in the protocol for the following reasons.

1. It defeats the exploitation of open HTTP proxies and other one-way address hiding schemes; the sender must take a server role. 2. It can act as an improvement over greylisting, since the recipient is in control of the callback attempt, rather than waiting passively.
3. It could be incorporated into SMTP in an evolutionary manner if desired.
4. It need not present significant new exploit paths for spammers.

Brad Knowles has raised many objections to my defence of "pull" in this thread so far, quite a few of which I have left unanswered. I intend to leave them that way: I disagree with them, but addressing them would probably get me nowhere with Brad, and bore the remainder of the list. Therefore, I rest my case.

If anyone (other than Brad) feels that my argument is weak in some way, I'll be happy to consider the issue, either off-list or on.


KEEP IN MIND that pull is being considered for many applications that were prior carried over email such as newsletters which begun to migrate to HTML and RSS. If anyone considers the "pull" proposal viable for specific applications or even for email, then a document summarizing pros and cons would be useful. This document should include input from both side of fence and take the req. and tech. considerations document into account.

And Brad and Brett - thank you for keeping your cool! In the past many conversations like this have deteriorate into flame wars. This is a mark of improvement for the entire group.

Yakov



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