[Mailman-Users] Allow discard-and-forward for spam filters?

[Mark Sapiro]

On 3/30/16 5:49 AM, Adrian Pepper wrote:
> 
> However, in
> https://python.org/mailman/admin/mailman-users/privacy/spam
> you can only Dicard or Hold.
> (Complete list Defer, Hold, Reject, Discard, Accept).
> 
> It would be nice if for each filter rule individually you
> could choose "discard and forward to moderator".
> 
> Has that actually been implemented in subsequent versions of Mailman 2,
> i.e. between 2.1.12 and 2.1.21 ?


No.

It is an interesting idea. The problem is that unless someone submits a
patch, I'm the one that would end up doing it, and even with a patch,
I'd need to audit it. I'm starting to get more involved in MM 3, and as
such, have less time for MM 2.1 "nice to haves". You can always submit a
request for MM 2.1 at <>.

I don't know what your mods "for recognizing alternative email
addresses" are, but there is since MM 2.1.19 and equivalent_domains list
attribute to, e.g., say that @mac.com, @me.com and @icloud.com are all
the same for list membership purposes.


> I assume in Version 3 the filter capabilities have been completely
> redone and probably regularized.


Not completely redone, but redone in some respects, but probably not
regularized in the ways you would want.


> Now certainly we wouldn't want [or would appreciate the choice
> not] to "forward to moderator" all discards on the /spam page.
> And, really, the "does this fail the membership (filter) requirements"
> is something you'd like to be able to determine in the spam filters.
> (And simply discard those, perhaps forwarding if they are not too
> spammy).  (Because really really we'd like to "hold" slightly spammy
> messages which meet membership requirements, but discard-and-forward
> the others, but discarding-and-forwarding-to-moderator all would be
> reasonable compromise).


The easiest way for me to implement this would simply be to add a
"Discard and Forward" action to the other choices. Adding a Forward
checkbox that would apply to any selected action is certainly more
flexible, but more complicated to implement.


> I wondered too about combined expressions (and negation).
> Those don't look easy to do.
...
> Since you can always add multiple rules to achieve "or", it seems
> unfortunate (but past history now) that multiple expressions don't "and".


Yes, it does, but as you note it's history. Maybe in MM 3.


> Anyway, my simple question is "did Mailman 2 sometime after 2.1.12 gain
> the ability to 'dicard and forward to moderator'" as an option for each
> spam filter rule?


Again, No.


> (Along with the implicit suggestion that that would be a useful option).
> (And the longer-term suggestion for AND and negation).


AND and negation probably won't happen in MM 2.1.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan