Re: [Groff] groff mailman problems

[Werner LEMBERG]

>     Ted> So -- and I don't like appearing to be paranoid -- I am
>     Ted> beginning to wonder more stribgly than before whether there
>     Ted> is a deliberate attempt on the part of someone out there to
>     Ted> sabotage either the groff list or some of its members. Or
>     Ted> to sabotage groff itself.
> 
> I can understand why you might feel that way. Especially since your
> email address is on much of the virus/spam crap that ends up on the
> list. This must be annoying and frustrating. However it's stretching
> things to suggest there might be a conspiracy at work. For starters,
> who stands to gain if groff or the mailing list gets sabotaged? It
> can't be the TeX people: Knuth stopped using email years ago. :-)

Well, there *might* be a slight possibility that the groff list is
kind of a `collateral damage' (to use this ugly phrase) -- the server
ffii.org also hosts, as the name says, FFII stuff, an organization
which is very active in fighting against software patents in Europe.
But I doubt that the spam attacks are really targeting the FFII host.

> For the groff list, these difficulties are compounded by the poor
> anti-spam measures in place on the mail server. Most of the crap
> that gets sent has a distinctive signature that should be easily
> identified and filtered out. Since this is beyond what ffii.org can
> offer, we have to put up with the unwanted traffic until the list
> can get moved somewhere else. Sigh. We wouldn't be having this
> conversation -- or any spam on the list -- if the mail server used
> something like SpamAssassin. That would also put an end to your
> conspiracy theories.

Actually, SpamAssassin *is* used -- there are up to 500 emails daily
which get filtered out.  ffii.org simply lacks a maintainer who
updates and fine-tunes mailman and SpamAssassin.  AFAIK, Aigars
Mahinovs has offered to help maintaining the mailing lists, but he is
still evolved in another project so he can't offer time currently (I
hope this will change soon -- Aigars?)


    Werner