[Mailman-Users] hide list address for security ..

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Khalil Abbas writes:

 > ofcourse I don't want them to know the address for the very same
 > reason, spam to the list..

Please don't call it spam on this list, where most people know what
the word means, and many actually read the Green Card spam that
started the whole issue (which wasn't on a mailing list at all, it was
on Usenet).  Spam is not "unwanted mail", it is *mass-distributed*
unwanted mail.  We know you don't want it, but if you don't
distinguish between the different ways it gets to you, we can't help
you.

Are people actually typing in the address?  Or are they hitting reply,
and inadvertantly sending to the list?  If it's the latter, adding a
Reply-To header that sends it to a black hole or an address that
stores their replies for later handling (similar to what you have now,
but hopefully segregates them from real spam for a while ... you could
arrange to change it every day or so since it will surely leak).

 > besides, they subscribe thru a form in my site not by email to the
 > -subscribe address.. and cancel their subscription thru a form
 > too.. now I'm getting huge loads of spam not only to my list, but
 > to my sender's address which I can't change because all my
 > subscribers are advised to mark this address as 'safe sender' in
 > hotmail and yahoo and others..

You're starting to understand the constraints of the mail system.

 > > >yet again, for the list owner getting loads of unrecognized
 > > >bounces is pain enough, I get hundreds of'em and open each and
 > > >every one of them to make sure that there are no real bounces!

Run them through spamassassin or something like that.  The odds that
one is a real bounce is very low, you ought to be able to triage them
a lot better before opening any.

 > > However, I will tell you right now, I can't see ever making changes
 > > that would make it possible for you to hide the identity of a list
 > > from the members receiving its mail.
 > 
 > well, at least I tried :)

If you would be more accurate in describing the situation and exactly
what you're trying to accomplish, we could be of more help.  Even if
you're not a spammer, your whole attitude of looking for a convenient
way to get your message to the list without actually fixing any
problems is very similar to the spammers.  If you don't fix that,
you're probably not going to get very useful advice.