On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:39:22 +0100, SM <sm(_at_)resistor(_dot_)net> wrote:
Coming back to the subject of list expanders, I'll skip the A-R angle
as there are other venues to talk about it. The question is whether
to consider the author's signature, the mailing list signature or
both. Sometimes you know the author and you'll choose to pass the
message through. But if you rely on that alone, then you are only
doing selective "acceptance" of the mailing list traffic which goes
against how a mailing list operates. There's a well-known mailing
list that suffers from a spam problem. If the messages are accepted
based on the mailing list signature alone (that mailing list is not
using DKIM at the moment), you are allowing spam into your mailbox.
And that hs precisely the problem. 99.5% of list expanders are competently
managed, and the list recipients will usually be quite happy that the list
manager had taken proper note of any incoming signature, and had not
allowed any bad stuff onto his list. So recipients will be quite satisfied
if he signs to say this is a genuine message from the list, even if the
incoming signature has been broken and/or removed.
But there will be a few lists where this is not the case, such as the one
SM mentions. I don't know whether the spam on that particular list is
because the list admin is careless, or whether it is inherent in the
subject matter of the list. EIther way, it is necessary for recipients to
be watchful.
Maybe their standard spam filters will filter out the spam (though I doubt
it). So they may well want to take note of any signature placed there by
the original sender. It is in the nature of that sort of list that the
list admin can only sign to say that it came from his list, But if he is
smart, he can help his members by checking and reporting on any in coming
signatures he receives (e.g. by inserting A-R headers, and not destroying
original signatures). That way, the ultimate recipients can be reassured
even if the policy of the list is (for some good reason, let us assume) to
forward everything submitted to it.
So recipients who care about it are likely to be looking carefully as
_both_ signatures.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131
Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl(_at_)clerew(_dot_)man(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5
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