Y'know, it's not often that I agree with Ron -- and I've toasted him
more than once on Spam-L when I didn't. But this time I have to
agree with him: there is NO acceptable excuse for running any kind
of mailing list that doesn't employ verification.
Is it hard? Possibly. Is it confusing to users? Maybe. Is it more
work? Probably. Does it have to be done? Absolutely.
And in some ways, that's too bad, because in the days before spammers
and pranksters were so prevalent, it wasn't necessary. Abuses were
few and far between, and could be dealt with as they happened. But
thanks to the tolerance for spam/abuse exhibited by many of those
who either (a) don't care or (b) put profits ahead of ethics, it's
a different 'net, and, well, for the moment at least, we're stuck
with it. And just like we can't have world-writable FTP archives
or world-mountable NFS volumes without opening the door for all
kinds of trouble, we can't have non-verified mailing lists.
As to the RBL, my experience is that they're quite picky and that
it's rather difficult to get a site listed -- as it should be.
I do wish, though, that they would provide an always-accessible
email address so that it's not necessary to call them. (Voice
communications are difficult for those of us with hearing problems.)
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
