advocacy/89731: TOO MANY SPAMs on jp.freebsd.org's mailing list

Takeo Hashimoto takeo at ss.jip.co.jp
Wed Nov 30 14:20:23 GMT 2005


Thanks following up.

On Wednesday 30 November 2005 22:11 JST, jhb at freebsd.org wrote
>On Wednesday 30 November 2005 01:07 am, Takeo Hashimoto wrote:
>> Currently every subscriber has to spend their time
>> wading through the spam to pick up the ones which are not spam.
>> (Of course it is dissipation of resources.)
>
>Yes, I use spamassassin personally.  Also, I should note that FreeBSD.org's
>mail server employs some aggressive spam filtering which stops a lot of it
>from showing up on FreeBSD lists.  Perhaps the jp folks could setup some spam
>filtering on their mail server as well to cut down on the load.  Note that
>only a couple of FreeBSD.org lists are restrict_post, most are open.

FreeBSD.org lists may be greater than jp's, but you said to me:

>                                     Also, I should note that FreeBSD.org's
>mail server employs some aggressive spam filtering which stops a lot of it
>from showing up on FreeBSD lists.

it is very good. I'm very grad to hear that.
we all want to hear same explanation from jp admins.

There is no transparency on jp.FreeBSD.org,
so we feel no democracy and admins dogma.


>> >                            This means that someone new to FreeBSD
>> > will likely have their questions lost because the e-mail will never
>> > make it to the list (e.g. freebsd-questions) and would make it that
>> > much harder for new people to get help getting started with FreeBSD.
>>
>> It is not difficult to subscribe ML
>> even if they are new to FreeBSD.
>
>I think you overestimate the skill of some newbies.

I don't think so, they do search first on the web before posting mail.
and that is my 1st point.
 - newbie can not find any kind of know-how from ML archive site.
because the archive has been filled with spam.

But I agree "open" and "restrict_post" should be beneficiate for each list.

>                                                     The other problem is that
>some ML, like questions@, get a large number of e-mails a day.  I'm not sure
>it's fair to require a user to wade through a hundred or more non-spams just
>so they can ask a question.

If user posts some questions to the list,
then he might get some answer, and also much hard spam?
unfortunately it is true at jp.FreeBSD lists.
I think the policy "restrict_post" will save him (and also us).

but you don't think so. mmm...

>> > Adding restrict_post actually is a lot of work on the admins since
>> > someone has to handle all the bounced e-mails.
>>
>> I think we can simply ignore them (>/dev/null).
>>
>> If you have better idea to stop deliver spam,
>> please let me know.
>
>Most of the FreeBSD developers when we have had discussions on spam recently

"discussions" sounds good.

I think we are same on this point:
  "how to make it easy for new people to get started with FreeBSD?"

but the conclusion is different.  You say "open the door (with gatekeeper)"
I say "close the door until you examine the newcomer is a human".

I think that it is policy problem, so jp admins need to have public hearing.
Will this PR cause their action? I hope.

>have concluded that the spam problem is so large and extent, that the only
>real solution is for the receiver to block spam.

well, we have to write easy-setup-guide of spam-filter
for beginners, and have to shout to them
"Wait! set up your filter before you post!"
#----------------------------------------------------------#
# Takeo Hashimoto.                             sempre ff.  #
#----------------------------------------------------------#



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