Spam levels.

[C W Rose]

I've been reading a limited range of Usenet groups since the late 1980s,
and until the recent problems in comp.lang.python had never bothered with
any sort of filtering; it's easier just to ignore people.  However, the
sheer volume of spam in comp.lang.python finally defeated me, so I set up
a filter in my leafnode NNTP server, which pulls from eternal-september
and gmane (read-only).  The results for the last few weeks are below:

  Jan 20 15:34:39 comp.lang.python: 50 articles fetched, 71 killed
  Jan 21 14:21:30 comp.lang.python: 25 articles fetched, 18 killed
  Jan 26 13:04:40 comp.lang.python: 85 articles fetched, 276 killed
  Jan 28 22:58:42 comp.lang.python: 83 articles fetched, 184 killed
  Jan 29 16:07:11 comp.lang.python: 41 articles fetched, 52 killed
  Jan 30 16:57:03 comp.lang.python: 57 articles fetched, 56 killed
  Jan 31 16:52:01 comp.lang.python: 39 articles fetched, 87 killed
  Feb 1 16:02:49 comp.lang.python: 39 articles fetched, 73 killed
  Feb 2 14:39:46 comp.lang.python: 43 articles fetched, 57 killed
  Feb 3 18:17:55 comp.lang.python: 19 articles fetched, 108 killed
  Feb 4 15:28:03 comp.lang.python: 36 articles fetched, 122 killed
  Feb 5 15:26:08 comp.lang.python: 45 articles fetched, 79 killed
  Feb 6 16:29:40 comp.lang.python: 68 articles fetched, 93 killed
  Feb 7 16:43:26 comp.lang.python: 32 articles fetched, 118 killed
  Feb 8 16:01:14 comp.lang.python: 41 articles fetched, 100 killed
  Feb 9 17:06:09 comp.lang.python: 47 articles fetched, 201 killed

giving the totals:  
  Kept: 750 articles
  Killed: 1695 articles

Until the last few days the spammers were using a fixed format,
but recently I've had to play whack-a-mole with filtering, so the
Killed total is probably underestimated by ten or twenty posts.

No other groups (in the limited set which I read) have the problem,
and I don't understand why the spammers neither spam a range of
groups, nor change their adddresses more frequently.  It may be
that destroying comp.lang.python is their actual objective.

Either way, a depressing state of affairs.

Will

-- 
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and
 more closely, the inner soul of the people.  On some great and glorious day,
 the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the
 White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic
 moron." -- H. L. Mencken.