From: Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu>
well, some of the IETF lists that I maintain seem to get around 50 spams/day
(at least, if I go away for a day before I cull through the posts from
nonsubscribers, I am likely to wind up with 60+ messages on some of those
lists, of which 59.5 are spam)
Some judicious unsubscribing and reporting of spam can reduce that load
radically. Contrary to the religous claims of some commentators,
many spammers do try to avoid "internet anti-commerze netcop nazi flamers."
Many just try to avoid send to those who care enough to object.
Of course, some spammers take "remove" requests as confirmation, but
an address that is receiving 50 spam/day doesn't need to worry about not
already being confirmed.
but it's not the cost of the disk that matters, it's the cost of backing it
up. I can think of better things to spend IETF money on.
What's the cost of backup it up? Writing a CDROM once a week is
essentially free in materials and can be pertty cheap in labor costs.
A CDROM is cheaper than even plain oiled (no Mylar) paper tape used
to be. It's not as if anyone suggested making serious archives that
would be available within 30 minutes for disaster recovery or that
will survive the end of civilization as we know it.
One hopes that the real mailing list archives are already backed up
sufficiently. Adding several dozen MBytes of spam and moderation
rejects to those datasets would be literally free if you are using giant
media like CDROMs--not to mention DVDs.
Vernon Schryver vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com