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Karl von Laudermann wrote:
| On Apr 7, 8:37 am, Gregory Seidman <gsslist+r... / anthropohedron.net>
| wrote:
|> Spam is a global problem. If it were easy to stop, it would already be
|> gone. You are using gmail, however, which has pretty decent spam filters.
|> Use them.
|
| I find the attitude of "filter it yourself" to be dismissive and
| unhelpful. No, you can't stop spam from being sent, but there do
| exist  tools to detect and filter spam, such as the one you pointed
| out that gmail has. If a spam filter could be applied to the mailing
| list so as to prevent the spam messages from being sent out to
| everyone in the first place, then that would be preferable, as it
| would remove the burden from each individual participant. IOW, having
| everyone filter it themselves seems to violate the DRY principle. ;-)

So, where should the filter work? The news <> mail gateway? How about
the Ruby Forum?

How do you deal with false positives? Does your classification of spam
fit with mine, or everybody elses?

Since spam, at its most basic level, means "unsolicited email" (in this
context), how do you create a filter that pleases everyone, and offends
no-one?

Truly effective filtering can only be done on the client side, since
there are simply too many variables to take into account.

| Also, not everyone is using the mailing list. Some of us read and post
| to the comp.lang.ruby newsgroup. Google Groups (which I use) doesn't
| have a spam filter AFAIK, and neither do most news readers with which
| I am familiar. (Killfiles aren't quite the same thing; you have to
| know in advance what you're filtering.)

Tough luck. You chose to use a specific interface, so you'll have to
deal with the consequences.

However, Google Groups, as well as the mailing list are opt-in to
receive and send messages. And cutting off the Usenet group seems to be
a bit harsh.

And, in this day and age, somebody using a Usenet client that has no
spam filtering is in need of an upgrade due to security issues, too
(Spam on Usenet is a problem since.. the Eternal September, or so? It
can be expected that a Usenet client uses some sort of spam filtering.
If somebody chooses not to, it is their problem, IMO.)

- --
Phillip Gawlowski
Twitter: twitter.com/cynicalryan

Use uniform input formats.
~            - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plaugher)
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