[Mailman-Users] spam, spamcop and mailman moderation

[Gadi Evron]

[x-posted to an anti-spam list]

Hi.

This is not specific to mailman, but I had a lot of trouble with it. I am
sure I am not the only one, so I figured I'll share.

In recent months the problem of moderation, especially with large lists,
has become even more significant.

The amounts of spam which reach the uncomfortable moderation page is
staggering.. but this email is not about the very inconvinient way of
mailman moderation (even small changes such as letting me moderate
non-members differently would have been amazing!).

This email is about spamcop.
Spamcop is blacklisting server swhich relay mailing list bounces
containing spam. Mailing list bounces are some of the only acceptable
bounces left on the Internet, but now that's no longer true.

These bounces contain mostly spam and phishing, and bounced back to fake
addresses belonging to real people. Therefore, even if Spamcop is
especially evil in this case and annoy us to hell and back - they are
right.

Bouncing back a message which tells a user his original message is held
for moderation is now a bad idea if we want to stay out of the black list
of spamcop, not to mention to not turn our servers to willing spam
conduits (as discussed a few months ago).

	Gadi.