🚀 go-pugleaf

It appears that sending junk mail to mailing lists is starting to be a problem.
As most of you have seen, two such messages (identical) were sent to the SLUG
mailing list via Cornell from a non-Cornell address.

I CC'ed the SLUG mailing list on my reply of the first junk mail.
Unfortunately, none of the principals (including Cornell) paid any
attention to my message.  As a result of this weekend's mail, I have
sent a specific message to Cornell asking for them to take action and
warning them that if they forward such junk mail, they may be blocked
from getting mail into our site.


I have sent another note to IXC.NET advising them that their site was now
blocked from sending mail to our site.  I further said that if the junk
mail was due to an irresponsible individual, then they could contact me
(by phone or US mail) and we might open it up again.  (This blockage doesn't
wouldn't block the two junk mailings since each went through Cornell.)

That second note was CC'ed to Hostmaster@NIC.INTERNIC.NET and SPRINTLINK.NET
(IXC.NET's network addresses are within a block administered by SPRINTLINK)
asking whether *IF* there was a site involved in fraud, were there procedures
in place for removing Internet access for that site.

If any of you might contemplate responding to the junk mail, I
*STRONGLY* urge you first to contact the US postal authorities and the
Better Business Bureau regarding that mail address.


Perhaps incidentally, I have received another piece of junk mail which appears
to have come through another person that has done Lisp-related mailing lists.


I have thought about what methods could be used to limit the exposure of
our mailing list readers to these undesireable mailings.  One would be for
the mailing list to become a moderated list.  That does place a significant
burden on the moderator and, over the years, I see that it tends to wind up
with the moderator getting the mail out less often.

A second idea would require a filter to allow certain mail through and to
route other mail through the mailing list maintainer.  For instance, a
simple filter might be that any mail that has the word "LISP" in it, then
the mail goes through.  That should block most junk mail.  Unfortunately,
it might mean that some messages get delayed relative to others.  It also
requires human interaction on messages that fail the filter.


I've preferred direct redistribution for the many years that I've run
the SLUG and other mailing lists.  I don't accept any responsibility
for the mail directly redistributed.  Replies go to the sender rather
than the list.  I really spend very little time running the list and I
have very little time to do it.  If someone has specific knowledge of
how to set up filters, I would appreciate some pointers (for SunOS and
sendmail).

I apologize for the junk mail that has gotten through and that will probably
still get through in the future.  Unfortunately the world is changing.  You
may not be able to safely take a walk at night or read your email.


Mabry Tyson
SLUG-Request@AI.SRI.COM
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