I think on the python list, when you review the archives, the poster address is viewed like a CAPTCHA. So, it makes it slightly more difficult (though not impossible) to pullout poster emails addresses and replace john.doe at domainname.com
> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Douglas Bates > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:39 AM > To: Doran, Harold > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Gorden T Jemwa; r-help@r-project.org > Subject: Re: [R] UNSOLITED E_MAILS: Integrate R data-analysis > projects wi > > Usually a captcha is used to prevent creation of email > accounts for use by spammers. (There was an interesting > article recently on whether the Gmail captcha scheme had been > broken so that spammers could create masses of gmail > accounts. The general conclusion is that the capcha scheme > is intact but spammers hire people in low-wage countries to > manually respond to the captcha challenge.) > > What Ted has suggested and what I am confident is the case is > that email addresses of posters were obtained from list > archives or something like that. I know for a fact that the > R Foundation is not selling any email lists. The idea that R > Core has engaged in a nefarious money-making scheme of > spending more than a decade developing high-quality open > source software, providing support, enhancements, > conferences, email lists, etc. so they could "cash out" > by selling a mailing list for a modest amount of money seems, > well, unlikely. > > If email addresses are being extracted from the archives then > the only place a captcha would help is when viewing the > archives. Requiring everyone to submit the solution to a > captcha before retrieving a message from the archives would > be tedious and make the archives essentially useless. > Besides, all that is required is for one person to > legitimately subscribe to the lists and run their own filters > on the incoming email to extract the addresses of posters. > My guess is that Ben Hinchliffe or someone else at > Bluereference.com is already subscribed. > > The best way to discourage such questionable practices is not > to patronize organizations that use them. > > On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 7:48 AM, Doran, Harold <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Can a CAPTCHA be implemented as a prevenative measure > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:33 AM > > > To: Gorden T Jemwa > > > Cc: r-help@r-project.org > > > Subject: Re: [R] UNSOLITED E_MAILS: Integrate R data-analysis > > > projects wi > > On 18-Mar-08 12:08:44, Gorden T Jemwa wrote: > > > > Dear R Admins, > > > > > > > > I received an unsolicited e-mail from BlueInference as an R > > > user. Does > > it mean that R that our e-mails (and names) is > > sharing it's user > > database with third parties without our > > consent? Or perhaps the > > BlueInference guys are using an e-mail > > address miner to get our > > contact details? > > > > [SNIP] > > > > Dear Gorden Jemwa, > > > > > > > > As a fellow R user, I am sure you agree with me that R is a > > > dear gift > > from the R-project community that should enjoy broad > > use. > > > > [...] > > > > Ben Hinchliffe > > > > Inference Evangelist > > > > BlueReference, Inc. > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > It would not be difficult to mine a database of email > > addresses > > from the R-help archives. Each month's postings can > be > downloaded > > as a .gz file. Each posting in the resulting > unzipped > .txt file has > > a line of the form > > > > From: user.name at email.domain > > > > > > and all that's then needed is to replace " at " with "@", and > > > you have the email address. > > > > > > On a Unix system, a quick 'grep | sed' would do the job > in a second! > > > > > > In this case, the spam was clearly carefully targeted at R > > > users, so quite possibly they took a bit more trouble over > it > (to > > the point of extracting full names as well). > > > > > > I can't see the R people deliberately sharing their database, > > > and the list of subscribed email addresses is accessible only > to > > the list owners. So it seems much more likely that the > publicly > > readable archives have been mined along the lines I > > suggest above. > > > > > > Best wishes, > > > Ted. > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 > > > Date: 18-Mar-08 > Time: 12:32:30 > > > ------------------------------ XFMail > > ------------------------------ > > > > ______________________________________________ > > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > > > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, > reproducible code. > > > > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
