[Spambayes] mtaproxy

[Robert K. Coe]

I wouldn't. Several objections have been raised in this forum to this punishment method, and I think most of them are valid. The most obvious is that it punishes the spammer's ISP, and its other users, not just the spammer. Another is that it could start a war in which ISPs might begin blacklisting each other, to everyone's detriment.

We all agree that spam is annoying, which is why we're so interested in Spambayes. But it isn't the crime against humanity that some anti-spam zealots seem to think it is. I don't know Mr McNab, and I won't suggest that he belongs in that category. But the shoot-the-messenger style of punishment incorporated into his program strikes me as childish and out of proportion to the offense. I hope the Spambayes developers won't accept his suggestion.

I don't mean to personalize this issue, and I hope you'll all forgive me if you think I have. But by crossing the line from defense to offense, I think this program goes beyond the legitimate scope of the Spambayes project.

If mtaproxy, or any form of its punishment algorithm, were to be incorporated into Spambayes, I wouldn't let my users take advantage of it, because I think it would reflect badly on the city for which we work.

Bob


> -----Original Message-----
> From: David McNab [mailto:david at rebirthing.co.nz]
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2003 4:36 AM
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Thanks you (was: Re: [Spambayes] How do I...)
> 
> ...
> Anyway, mtaproxy is now humming along fine.
> 
> (Maybe it needs a more colourful name like 'SpamQueda') :)
> 
> And, to boot, it now does optional RBL checks at HELO time, going
> straight into spammer punishment mode if the remote MTA is blacklisted.
> If RBL check passes, it tests content with hammiefilter, and goes into
> punishment mode if hammiefilter rules the content to be spam.
> 
> As advised, I'm feeding messages into hammiefilter.py, then passing the
> filtered message with X-Spambayes-Classification intact, along to
> proxytee (without the probability arg).
> 
> Result is that mtaproxy now punishes spammers (as determined by RBL
> check, then by content analysis), and makes the messages available for
> training in the web interface.
> 
> Thanks to all for patiently answering all my n00b questions.
> 
> A last question - would anyone be open to the possibility of mtaproxy
> being included in the official spambayes distribution (or at least
> linked from the SpamBayes website)?