[pvrusb2] admin: changes to the pvrusb2 mailing list

[Mike Isely]

A couple of notes regarding the pvrusb2 mailing list:

A little less than 2 months ago I implemented a greylist filtering 
algorithm on the isely.net MTA.  I did this in response to a sudden 
LARGE increase in received spam mail.  This would have subjected all 
pvrusb2-related posts to the greylist, but at the time I was unsure how 
well the filter would function so I specifically white-listed anything 
involving pvrusb2 list traffic.

Well it's been almost two months and the greylist is actually working 
pretty well.  Meanwhile spammers' attempts at abusing this mailing list 
have increased.  As you all know, posting isn't allowed here unless you 
subscribe first.  That *so far* has perfectly protected the list traffic 
itself, but the various addresses have been getting constantly abused 
(and rejected).  And starting today a new spammer has shown up trying to 
disguise his garbage by putting "pvrusb2 at isely.net" in the "To:" field 
(even though the target is still my normal address).  This is causing 
that worthless garbage to bypass the greylist.  Why do these jerks do 
things like that?  Do they have some kind of twisted sense that I'm 
actually going to do business with someone who consciously decides to 
abuse my resources?  What an ass.  I'm also getting more concerned as 
the list software auto-replies back to the spammers with rejection 
notices from attempts to post to the list, spew at the request address, 
etc.

So, I'm going to drop the whitelisting of the pvrusb2 list.  This will 
subject all pvrusb2-related e-mail to the greylist.  Given my 2 months 
of experience with greylist techniques, I am reasonably confident that 
there should be no problems for normal users.  Your posts will 
experience a minimal 5 minute delay the first time you post, but once 
the greylist filter "learns" who you are, then you'll get a free pass 
through the filter for the next 90 days - with the counter recharged 
back to 90 days again for each successful post.

If for some reason you post to this list and it doesn't appear, please 
let me know through my pobox address (isely (at) pobox (dot) com), which 
is filtered through a different means.

Long story short, pvrusb2 list related e-mail will now pass through the 
greylist filter but I expect there will be no problems from it.

On a related note: roccomoretti (at) hotpop (dot) com, I am going to 
unsubscribe you from this list.  There is a large pileup of outgoing 
e-mail to your address, all of which is being deferred.  This has been 
going on for quite some time (weeks at least).  I don't know why; 
perhaps your host thinks erroneously that I am a spammer or you have 
some kind of messed up e-mail filter.  Maybe you've just disappeared.  
If you can get that cleaned up, feel free to resubscribe.  In the mean 
time I will drop that address and clean out my outgoing mail queue.  Of 
course, you're not going to get this message; perhaps you'll see it in 
the list archives...

There should be a death penalty for spammers :-(

  -Mike


-- 

Mike Isely
isely @ isely (dot) net
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