I tend to agree with Mr. Touch, "Spam is definned by
content". However, the content complying with "SPAM"
comes from a small list of people. People, who are,
in general, not signed up for the IETF mailings. By
placing a guard on the incoming lists, restricting
incoming mail to those
individuals/organizations/corporations/etc. that
recieve messages sent to the IETF lists, Then, by
moderating the lists to these users who comply with
the morals of the IETF, we can eliminate spam to a
near virtual zero. This is one simple, but effective
method of controlling spam. My opinion: this, and a
combination of filters, would eliminate SPAM.
Cheers, Don McMorris, Chief Network Operator, Ospitare
Intl.
--- James M Galvin <galvin(_at_)acm(_dot_)org> wrote:
On Sat, 16 Mar 2002, Joe Touch wrote:
The main issue here is about the rule for the
filter. We all want less
spam. The difference is:
- to me, spam is defined by content
- to you, spam is defined by user
and assumes a correlation between user and
content
I almost agree with your distinction but I want to
make one clarification.
To me, it's not that spam is defined by user, it's
that non-spam is
defined by user.
What this means from an implementation point of view
is that non-spam is
almost trivial to configure and then more or less
runs itself, or at
least distributes the management to the subscribers.
Thus the
cost-benefit ratio for this particular spam control
mechanism is
negligible from the point of view of the *volunteer*
list host.
We have to remember that the bulk of IETF mailing
lists are hosted and
managed by volunteers. All mechanisms other than
correlation by user
have a labor intensive component. Such mechanisms
are not excluded but
they are impractical for volunteers.
While I agree that "user ease" is of paramount
concern, I do not believe
it is a priority concern considering how the IETF as
an organization
"manages" its mailing lists. Now, if you want to
talk about
centralizing the management of the IETF lists, then
the priority concern
issues can be different.
Jim
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