Re: (ET) Spam problems

[Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>]

When I changed over to mailman and mhonarc, I clearly announced (See
http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mhonarc/elec-trak/msg05695.html) that
e-mail addresses would be in the archive, so that shouldn't come as a
surprise to anyone.  I offered to remove the email address of anyone
who asked before putting the archive on the web, and one person did
make that request.

   Mhonarc, the utility which compiles the ET archive, has a built in
   option to obfuscate email addresses.  I'd like to ask whomever has
   some measure of control over the archive to arrange for that option
   to be applied.

I looked into this option, but it seemed that it was not able to
replace addresses in messages that were included in replies, so it
seemed of little value.  Furthermore, I don't think spammers are
stupid, so any simple replacement can be undone by programs.  The
problem can be fixed by the technique used by Yahoo in which addresses
are never given out at all, but then you have to use a web form in
order to reply to a message.  Personally, I think that's more
obnoxious than spam.

In any case, there's not much in point in removing the addresses from
the archive now, because anything which has ever been on the web is
archived forever (e.g. at archive.org).

   Otherwise I'll have to start posting from an address that forwards
   all replies to the bit bucket, which will make things inconvenient
   for all concerned.

I don't think this will help you, since your address is already in the
Elec-trak archives and permanently archived copies of them.  If you
insist on doing it, please use an address which rejects the mail
rather than discarding it.  It's much less obnoxious to get an error
when trying to communicate with someone than to never know whether
they've gotten your message or not.

As David said, this discussion is not really on topic for the list, so
people with additional things to say should probably just send them to
me and those who have said something on the subject before.

                 Ken