[SLUG] RoadRunner blocking SLUG List

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Wed Feb 08 2006 - 00:54:55 EST


Folks:

It appears that for some reason, RoadRunner is blocking traffic from the
SLUG list. I've contacted NKS about this, but I'm uncertain when or if
they can resolve it with RR. Apparently, there is some spam complaint
against the IP for the SLUG list server.

There are two reasons why I can think this would occur. First, list
members from time to time get spam emails that *appear* to come from
NKS. Understand, if you're getting email like this, it is *not* coming
from the list. This list is closed. You can't post to it unless you're
s*bscr*bed. A spammer would have to s*bscr*be and start sending spam.
One instance of this, and I would uns*bscr*be them. Problem solved.
However, it is relatively easy for a spammer to harvest list email
addresses from our list archives on the internet, and then closely
duplicate the headers to make it look like you're getting spam from the
SLUG list. Possibly resulting in complaints to an ISP like RoadRunner.

The second possible reason for this is that there are some people who
s*bscr*be without realizing what they're doing and then can't figure out
a way to uns*bscr*be. I hate to be harsh, but these are generally people
who have no business on this list anyway. My experience has been that if
they s*bscr*be without knowing it, recoil in horror at the volume of
posts or the content, and then are unable to uns*bscr*be, they really
should be on Windows or MacOS, not Linux. But they do tend to vocally
complain, not only to me, but probably to RR as well.

When I originally set up the New Member (Join) page, I set it up so
that, along with whatever personal information they give us about
themselves, there are buttons for s*bscr*bing to both the SLUG list and
the SLUG Announce lists. These buttons are by default checked, to make
it easy for them to get on the lists. However, I suspect that this has
caused some inadvertent s*bscr*ptions (even though it tells them in big
red letters what they're agreeing to), and possibly some ISP complaints.
Consequently, as of now, I'm forcing those buttons to be unchecked by
default. This may result in fewer list members over time, but should cut
down on complaints.

Paul

-- 
Paul M. Foster
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