Re: (ET) digest mode

["David Roden" <etpost drmm net>]

On 8 Apr 2007 at 19:42, jim donovan wrote:

> Is any one else getting spoof/etc emails?

I haven't received any spam from the listserver itself.  Maybe you're 
getting spam with its address spoofed.  

I used to get enormous amounts of spam on the address with which I posted 
to 
the ET list.  One day I ran a web search for my address, and discovered 
that 
it was all over the archive for this list.  

http://cosmos2.phy.tufts.edu/mhonarc/elec-trak/

Regrettably, the archive is publicly readable and contains cleartext email 
addresses.  The spambots harvest every address in this archive, so if you 
post here I flat-out guarantee that you'll get spam on the account you 
use.  
If you post for a few years, you will eventually be inundated with spam.

Address obfuscation is an option for the archive's software (Mhonarc), but 
the list manager has not (yet) implemented it.  So, the only way I know of 
to avoid the spambots is to have TWO addresses associated with the ET list.

Create one address only for posting TO the list.  Configure the listserver 
to not send mail to this account (that's an option).  Set this address up 
with your host or ISP so that any mail you do receive on it is discarded.  
If you don't have that level of control over your email, you can use a 
webmail service with an option to deep-six all mail that isn't 
whitelisted, 
such as Lycos.  The spammers will blast you on this address, but it won't 
matter since all their garbage goes right to the bit bucket.  

Then, create a second address only for receiving FROM the list.  NEVER 
send 
anything to the list on this address.  (In fact I configured my email 
program so that it CAN'T send mail to this address, only receive from it.)

That way the spammers won't find you, at least not through the ET archive.

The downside is that nobody else on the ET list can find you either, if or 
when he or she wants to send you private email.

The solution is to make some kind of alternate arrangement to convey your 
correct (reading or other) address, one which doesn't make it available to 
the spambots spidering the ET archive.  I do this with a signature.  It 
directs people to a website where my private email address can be found.  
That website uses javascript to obfuscate the address so that it's 
difficult 
(though probably not impossible) for the spambots to find it.

Hope this helps.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

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