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3 total messages Started by Clark L. Coleman Mon, 15 Apr 2002 18:16
What is going on in this newsgroup?
#2323
Author: Clark L. Coleman
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 18:16
7 lines
1399 bytes
80% of the postings here are gibberish. Is this newsgroup under
attack, or what? Are these all legitimate foreign language postings
that I cannot read on my US-English locale computer? If so, why this
newsgroup and no other similar technical newsgroups that I read?

Just curious.
Re: What is going on in this newsgroup?
#2325
Author: David Masterson
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 18:49
20 lines
1828 bytes
>>>>> Clark L Coleman writes:

> 80% of the postings here are gibberish. Is this newsgroup under
> attack, or what? Are these all legitimate foreign language postings
> that I cannot read on my US-English locale computer? If so, why this
> newsgroup and no other similar technical newsgroups that I read?

They're showing up in a large percentage of all the GNU newsgroups.

> Just curious.

I'm curious too.  Many of the postings don't even look like they have
legitimate HTML in them, so I wonder how anyone could read them.

Anyone have any filtering rules for this gibberish?

-- 
David Masterson                David DOT Masterson AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA
Re: What is going on in this newsgroup?
#2329
Author: Beemer Biker
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 01:19
69 lines
4928 bytes
Clark L. Coleman wrote:
> 80% of the postings here are gibberish. Is this newsgroup under
> attack, or what? Are these all legitimate foreign language postings
> that I cannot read on my US-English locale computer? If so, why this
> newsgroup and no other similar technical newsgroups that I read?
>
> Just curious.

This ng is configured for posting using email.  Whoever set up up left
it configured that way as it is easy to post using email (I am being
nice).   What you are seeing is typical spam that is sent from an
email harverster.  I tried looking the charters to see who is
responsible here, but couldnt find any reference for gnu news groups.

You can easily see what is happening by looking at your own posting,
as appended below:  Look for the "Approved:
bug-gdb-request@mail.gnu.org" line and the "Sender:"  They are the
same.  As far as I know this is the only news group that requires
approval to post and automatically approves all posts.  FWIW that puts
it in the class of an "Unmoderated moderated news group".    The
problem comes about when email harvesters go thru the headers of this
news group looking for email addresses.  The harverster will find
easily find bug-gdb-request@mail.gnu.org and BINGO this news group
gets spammed.  Since the spam does not bounce (it gets posted here),
the address is then sold to the  "50million verified email" CDROM
bulkers.  If you check the headers of other news group I doubt if you
will see any "Approved" posts.  IANE but I believe the premium news
groups, such as supernews, do not cancel or filter if the news header
shows "Approved' for any post.

======your post starts here Clark=========
x-uunet-gateway: mr1.ash.ops.us.uu.net from bug-gdb to gnu.gdb.bug;
Mon, 15 Apr 2002 18:17:09 GMT
Path:
newssvr12.news.prodigy.com!newssvr11.news.prodigy.com!newscon03.news.p
rodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!newscon04.news.prodigy.com!prodi
gy.com!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!4.1.16.34!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplan
et.com!news.gtei.net!nntp.abs.net!uunet!dca.uu.net!ash.uu.net!spool090
1.news.uu.net!wendy-fate.uu.net!clc5q
From: "Clark L. Coleman" <clc5q@cobra.cs.virginia.edu>
Subject: What is going on in this newsgroup?
Date: 15 Apr 2002 18:16:59 GMT
Organization: University of Virginia Computer Science Department
Message-ID: <a9f5er$afp$1@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cobra.cs.virginia.edu
X-Trace: murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU 1018894619 10745 128.143.137.16 (15
Apr 2002 18:16:59 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@virginia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Apr 2002 18:16:59 GMT
Approved: bug-gdb-request@mail.gnu.org
Newsgroups: gnu.gdb.bug
Sender: bug-gdb-request@mail.gnu.org
Lines: 8
Xref: newsmst01.news.prodigy.com gnu.gdb.bug:6601


80% of the postings here are gibberish. Is this newsgroup under
attack, or what? Are these all legitimate foreign language postings
that I cannot read on my US-English locale computer? If so, why this
newsgroup and no other similar technical newsgroups that I read?

Just curious.


--
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10.7K seti units, 18.6 years            Ask about my 99'R1100RT
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