[Mailman-Developers] Interesting study -- spam on postedaddresses...

[Dale Newfield]

On Thu, 21 Feb 2002, John Morton wrote:
> It's a test to find out if the agent that requested the page is human or some
> bot of some sort.

Assuming you can build such a test.  Good luck.

> If the question and answer can be arbitary on a site by site, or better,
> hit by hit basis, then it becomes infeasible to build a spambot to enter
> such sites.

If it's arbitrary, it's generated by some algorithm.  If it's generated by
some algorithm, I just need to figure out the algorithm and I can always
get it.

> I'd pregenrate them, give them an arbitary name and store a dictionary
> mapping email addresses to the image for page building purposes.
>
> > Once you've got that database, why not
> > just have that database front a web form instead of displaying the
> > address?
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain?


If you've got a database mapping arbitrary number/name/string to an email
address, then why not just have a web form that sends mail to that address
knowing only the arbitrary value (and never divulge the email address)?


> I'd prefer a slashdot style per user 'display address' option.

I don't believe any system like slashdot's is worth the time to implement,
since it is just as easily broken, and now you've got more useless stuff
for every single user to manage.

---
Dale Newfield <Dale@Newfield.org>

 "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we
are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -T. Roosevelt