Re: LYNX-DEV lynx-dev list status/problems

[tzeruch]

I have cc: this to comments at cauce.org because they are trying to deal
with the problem and may be interested since SPAM is causing problems for
this list and its archive, forcing something to be done.  They collect
spam horror stories, and this is quickly turning into one, and may provide
fuel to have the junk fax law specifically expanded to cover UCE.

The problem is if webcrawlers can find mailto: urls with dates that
indicate they are fresh, it is an invitation to be spammed.  I note that
even abuse.net has a form or two for its archived discussion list.

If every post to lynx-dev will result in a mailto:tzeruch-at-ceddec.com
for a spambot to find simply by going to www.flora.org and doing a crawl
through each link, then I want to have a way of posting without a valid
return address.

If you have to do a topic search, or something else that a spambot won't
be able to get through without manual intervention - any form that needs
user intervention for submit to go through to the archives, it would be
enough to prevent most problems.  Even a select [july'97/june'97/.../]
submit would stop most crawlers.  I think it would also stop altavista and
other search engines, so it might be best to include a local search
function, or allow the text versions (with munged return addresses so a
human could figure them out) only to be searched by the bots. 

lynx -traverse -crawl www.flora.org/lynx-dev , followed by grep mailto: on
reject.dat seems to be able to return a mailto: for everyone who ever
posted here.  I think that is just a little too easy for spammers to use
for source material.

The alternative for me is to post from a "valid" address@hidden
account and ignore all replys to that account.  You can also filter out
anything with known spamsites in the headers (which is what I do with
procmail) instead of blocking non-subscribers.

Questions and answers belong on this list anyway, and I don't want a
complete block, merely a speedbump somewhere so my reply address doesn't
get more UCE traffic than from lynx-dev.  That speedbump must either be in
my address, part of lynx-dev or at flora.org, and I don't really care
where, just as long as the above lynx command (and by extension the
spambots) can no longer will grab my address for new posts. 

--- reply to tzeruch - at - ceddec - dot - com ---

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