Re: [Asrg] In case anyone thought Barry was exaggerating

On Sun, Jun 29, 2003 at 09:57:46AM -0400, Alan DeKok wrote

>   Vernon's recent message is at least partially correct.  Some current
> anti-spam systems have made a difference for some people.  What he's
> missing is that they haven't made enough of a difference for people
> like my friends grandmother.  He's also shown his hand (IMHO), and
> explained for the first time why he's opposed to solutions which
> involve the IETF: his anti-spam system is a workable band-aid.
> 
>   But band-aids aren't considered good patient care.  Cures are.

  Let me address those points.  Back in November of 2002, I got 43 spams
from Korea, in Korean characterset, in the first 10 days of the month.
China and Taiwan, both of whom had mercilessly pounded my old
waltdnes@interlog.com account, had recently "discovered" my new personal
domain.  China was more worrisome, because some of their spam was in
English, which slipped past my procmail filters that looked for foreign
characters.  Plus I was getting flooded with sob stories from Mrs.
Miriam Booga, widow of the former Nigerian dictator, the late General
Ooga Booga.

  In late December, I got an account at clss.net that allows end-users
to set up individual blocklist selections and whitelists.  Processing
takes place just after RCPT:, and rejections consist of the big 550, not
the mailbombing of innocent 3rd-parties that have been forged as the
"From:" address.  I was able to point my personal-domain MX-record at
clss.net and keep my current email address.  My spam count on this
account has gone down from multiple spams per day to multiple days
between spams.  Yes, it took a bit of fiddling but it's worth it.
Although I personally prefer editing with vim, there is a menu-driven
setup option.

  As far as I'm concerned, my problem has been almost 100% cured.  That
cure is available to others.  Bill Gates may be unhappy that it's done
via a modified Qmail, and Exchange may not be able to duplicate that,
but it's not my problem.

>   What amazes me is the opposition to anything *other* than short-term
> band-aids.

  If you've got minor cuts, bandaids *ARE* the appropriate solution.
Some of the suggested cures are worse than the disease.  Since we're on
this patient-doctor analogy, let me remind you of Hippocrates'
admonition "First, do no harm".  I'm willing to endure short-term pain
for long-term gain, but I do want improvement that makes it worthwhile.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
Email users are divided into two classes;
1) Those who have effective spam-blocking
2) Those who wish they did

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