[Mailman-Developers] Opening up a few can o' worms here...

[John W Baxter]

At 10:58 -0700 7/16/2002, Chuq Von Rospach wrote:
>Are we hitting a point where mail list servers have to act as blind front
>ends for all of the subscribers, where replies are processed by those
>servers, and the server then takes on the job of acting as a
>troll-exterminator and spam blocker? And what does that really mean for
>things like Mailman?

I don't think so, quite yet.  But I think we've reached the point that it
is prudent for a user to use a different throwaway address for each
different place one exposes one's address.  (The address I use here isn't
unique, but it is throwaway.  And it isn't badly spammed yet.)

And we've reached the point that it's probably imprudent to gate mailing
lists and Usenet (which we've never done anyhow).

I use an @spamcop.net address on Usenet...I get the distinct impression
that most harvesters don't bother with those.

I think the issue is larger than just mailing lists:  SMTP-based email will
be unusable soon.  The replacement will be something permission based with
electronic signatures involved, and some TMDA-like way to get started
conversing with someone.

  --John the Disgusted

-- 
John Baxter   jwblist@olympus.net      Port Ludlow, WA, USA