Whitelist/verification spam filters

[Paul Rubin]

Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com> writes:
> I'm sure the whitelist technique is suitable for people who have a
> close-knit list of email buddies and do not get legitimate email from a
> wide variety of unknown places (like you say, run a Web site, or
> distribute software, or administer some service, etc.).  But for people
> with in effect a public presence on the Internet, the whitelist
> technique seems very selfish.

I don't like the whitelist approach and don't plan to use it, but one
important feature many whitelist programs have is: as soon as the
whitelist user sends out an email, the recipient's address is
automatically whitelisted.  So if you write someone and they reply
from the address you wrote them at, their reply won't bounce.

I think the above doesn't completely fix the problems of whitelists
or even of replies, but it helps a lot.