Here's an email I got in response to my question about spam on python.org mail lists. There are steps we might take. Kirby ============================ Kirby Urner wrote:

At edu-sig (a python.org discussion list), we're getting more spams than legit posts, which is actually a new phenomenon.

I was just wondering, without visiting a bunch of list archives, if this is par for the course.

In my experience, yes, it is. We were starting to get more noise than signal in the docutils-*@lists.sourceforge.net lists (also MailMan-powered).

I don't think we're limiting posts to members only. Is this also the usual thing?

I think most spam-filled lists are the same. I recently switched the lists to member-posting-only and the spam problem went away. In exchange, I now have a bit more work to do; I have to approve legitimate non-member posts and deny spam. However, it gets easier over time; details below.

I'm not the listowner for edu-sig (I just maintain the web page), but I am curious nevertheless.

It's easy to share the load. Get the list owner to share the list admin password with you. On the MailMan administration interface "General Options" page, add your email address on a new line to the "list admin's email address" field. On the "Privacy Options" page, under "General posting filters", set member_posting_only to Yes. Whenever a non-member post comes in, you'll be notified by email. For obvious spam, I just let the notifications pile up, and handle them in batch mode. Whenever there's a legitimate post, I copy the poster's email address, allow the message and paste the poster's email address into the "Addresses of members accepted for posting to this list without implicit approval requirement" field (below member_posting_only on the "Privacy Options" page). If you get multiple posts from non-members, you'll only have to do this once per address. The downside to this approach is that it's more work for the list admins. But I was getting annoying auto-replies from spam filters on far-flung mail servers, saying "you sent us spam", and I determined that the extra effort was worth it to remove the primary and secondary spam. I was reluctant to switch to member-posting-only because it's not obvious from the MailMan interface that non-member posts are *not* discarded automatically, but are in fact put in a queue for approval. Had I known that, I would have switched over much sooner. -- David Goodger http://python.net/~goodger For hire: http://python.net/~goodger/cv _______________________________________________ Pydotorg mailing list Pydotorg@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pydotorgon.org/mailman/listinfo/edu- sig