Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Blacklists, etc.

[Eric Blossom]

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 07:59:41AM +0930, Berndt Josef Wulf wrote:
> Since your are reading this:
> 
> I'm not sure why gnu.org lists are still listed in several RBL databases. I'm 
> subscribed to many mailing lists but gnuradio 
> is the only one giving me grieve.  This situation exists for a long time now 
> and I'm surprised that the responsible list maintainers seemingly don't care 
> and get this sorted out for once and all! Personally, I couldn't sleep until 
> this problem was fixed for once and all if this was my domain being 
> blacklisted.
> 
> cheerio Berndt

Berndt, it's not our problem.  If your ISP is blacklisting
lists.gnu.org, I suggest you fix it with your ISP, or switch ISPs.

The folks at the blacklist places have their own *very* rigid rules.
One of them is related to what is sometimes called "back scatter".

It works like this: an asshole spammer sends spam to one of the 100's
of lists on lists.gnu.org.  It contains a forged From address, say
address@hidden  address@hidden is not subscribed to the list.  Some of the
lists on lists.gnu.org are configured to be helpful.  That is, when
they receive mail from a non-subscriber, instead of just quietly
dropping it on the floor, they reply to address@hidden with a message
saying, "You're not subscribed, perhaps you are posting from a
different address than the one you are subscribed to, blah blah blah,
and your posting is being held for moderation" or something similar.
Now, if address@hidden happens to be an address (a spam trap address) set
by the ever so helpful black listing people, they consider this
message ("the helpful one"), unsolicited email, and thus mark the
source (lists.gnu.org) as a spammer.

So, it's a bit complicated.  The *-gnuradio lists are configured to be
quiet.  If a non-subscriber posts to discuss-gnuradio it's dropped on
the floor, with no notification sent anywhere.  However,
patch-gnuradio is configured so that it sends *me* a lovely notice
about it.  Thus I waste time every day sorting through the cruft, so
as to ensure that we don't miss anything useful sent to patch-gnuradio.

Eric