At 06:33 PM 2/27/98 -0500, Paul Smith wrote:
Could someone reiterate the thinking behind subscribing yourself to
mailing lists under an alias?
Well, one thing is that for lists which are archived to web, which in turn
are trolled by spambots to collect addresses, a list alias is easier to
ditch and use something different when the old one is overridden with spam
(at least, this is the case for people who have TRUE aliases, at the MTA
level, rather than MDA - such as plussed addresses).
My big issue right now (if you haven't been reading lately) is determining
if an arriving message came from a mailing list or not, because I intend
to apply spam filters differently to list mail vs direct mail.
Each mailing list generally has it's own unique characteristics -
"Resent-Sender:" or whatever. This is the long-standing way of filtering
list mail -- identify the characterstics the list mail you're subscribed to
falls under, and filter it that way.
Basically,
if the message came from a list, I won't apply the autoreply whitelist
method and instead will just use some blacklist/weighting approaches on
those mails. Mails I receive from non-list sources will have to battle
the full gammut of filters...
Perhaps run the basic filters, then filter out lists, then run the
exhaustive filters on what is left.
"psmith-exploder" alias. Also in the scheme somewhere is the requirement
that I have to somehow keep the aliased address out of the distributed
copies of my postings which go to the other subscribers.
I don't follow - you're going to subscribe with the alias, but continue to
try to post using the non-alias? Some lists won't LET you post if the
address isn't on the subscription list.
So far my biggest problem with that has been that I don't know if the
aliased address will even appear in list mail I receive.
If your mail server adds "for psmith" in the received line, then you have a
way. You're boffed though when multiple people at the same domain get list
mail - the MTA doesn't add it then.
scanned through some mail from this list that I have saved, and looking at
full headers, can't spot my own address anywhere outside of the Received:
lines, which I consider unreliable.
Try scanning the post you just made. With a non-exploder address, which
would be the reply-to if I were replying offlist or carboning you. So what
again whas the purpose of the exploder address if people still see your
regular address, and carbons would go there?
And then there is the issue of "plussed" addresses ("psmith+exploder"),
but I don't know if I'm mixing two different strategies mentioning that
here...
If your mail provider supports plussed addresses, they're useful. However,
unlike an MTA alias which can be deleted, and thus cause mail to bounce,
plussed mail continues to deliver to your account, where you have to filter
it to kill it.
---
Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies. I'll get my copy from the list.
Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering
Post Box 2395 / San Rafael, CA 94912-2395