[R] Trouble receiving messages from the mailing list

[(Ted Harding)]

On 18-Jan-08 08:32:02, Martin Maechler wrote:
>>>>>> "GC" == Gang Chen <gangchen at mail.nih.gov>
>>>>>>     on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:08:40 -0500 writes:
> 
>     GC> For some unknown reason I stopped receiving any messages
>     GC> from the R- help mailing list.  See if this test gets
>     GC> through.
> 
> It does; but you don't see it -- nor my answer -- so maybe
> someone can forward this (post)  to Gang Chen.
> 
> As I found, since about  Jan 14, 13:20 (UTC+01)  your site is
> not accepting any mails from our server any more.
> Probably you are black listing us, because of the recently
> slightly increased spam rate on r-help.

"Slightly" indeed! About 6 spam messages got through to the
list over 9-14 January, and I can't remember when I last
saw one prior to that.

If that triggered a black-listing, then I can only say that
Gang Chen's site is being very sensitive! (And, by the way,
he is being Cc:-ed on this message, so should see your reply.)

> I have to tell you (or rather the R-help audience) that I've
> spent too much time (again!) during this week trying to fight
> spam.

The R-help list is remarkably clean, considering the amount
of spam that probably gets thrown at it behind the scenes.
If that is due to your bare-hands interventions, Martin,
then it is a great tribute to your vigilance and efforts.

> Maybe the time of "free" (unauthorized) posting to mailing
> lists is approaching its end...

I doubt you would want to get into the situation of having
to approve every mail to the list, Martin -- traffic is too
heavy! (Unlike the BUGS list, which requires moderator
approval for every posting even from subscribers, but has
only a few messages per week.)

But there is a lot to be said for "posting by subscribers
only", such messages going straight through. Then the
moderator gets notifications of non-subscriber messages,
and it is a relatively easier task to simply watch out
for "Subject:" lines which indicate legitimate postings,
and moderate those few as they arise, leaving the remainder
for a periodic mass clean-out. (And perhaps it would also
help if the auto-message sent to unsubscribed mailers that
their message has been held for moderation also included
a strong recommendation that they should subscribe to the
list.)

This policy would carry a risk that spam mail "From:" a
subscribed address (probably with a forged "From:", but
possibly also from a subscriber's compromised computer)
will reach the list. But I dare say the rest of us can
live with that. I certainly could.

Best wishes, and thanks for your care of our list.
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
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Date: 18-Jan-08                                       Time: 10:44:26
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