I recently rejoined this list after an absence of several years because of
my growing frustration with the problems caused by spam filters. I run about
a dozen mailing lists in different sites, based on Majordomo, Listserv and
Listproc, and find that I am wasting more and more time dealing with message
rejection by automatic spam filters set up by hyperactive system
administrators. I would like to initiate a discussion to see how widespread
the problem is and if there is any way to deal with it.
The sites I run all deal with science, so most of our subscribers are in
academic or government research environments, often behind firewalls. A
significant fraction of our subscribers have had to be deleted because the
firewalls will not pass mail that has been through a mail server. The most
common error message is "relaying denied" even when the server is properly
configured to prevent spam relaying.
Usually these spam filters offer no recourse for rejected messages, that is,
there is no address you can write to point out that there is a configuration
problem. Currently for example I am being mail-bombed by an automated filter
that thinks I sent a virus-filled attachment in a message that contained no
attachment at all, but warned about files containing Visual Basic Scripts
that were circulating among our members.
The problem is not confined to mailing lists of course. The address from
which I am sending this, which is a major Portuguese institution whose
computer gateway is maintained by our national computer facility, is
routinely blocked by servers in Denmark, France, Spain, the US, and
Australia, which is a severe blow to scientific communication and
cooperation. I think that it is time to take action.
Dr. William Silvert
Instituto de Investiga��o das Pescas e do Mar
Departamento de Ambiente Aqu�tico
Avenida de Bras�lia, s/n
1449-006 Lisboa, Portugal
