As promised, a summary of responses to my anti-spam proposal...

There were five respondents; three offering general support:
<eric@thiel.com>, <pmauriks@ue.com.au>, <otaku@unixgeek.ml.org>

and two suggesting alternative plans which I'll summarize here.  I
will continue collecting further comments about my original plan or
these further proposals and digest them again on Monday if there's
anything new.  I also volunteer my services to the NetBSD list
managers in implementing some form of anti-spam measure.



Michael C. Richardson <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca> suggested a plan
which would use Majordomo's 'only-list-members-can-post' feature in a
more accommodating manner.  (past objections to using this feature are
along the lines "I receive list mail at one address, but often post
from another address." or "We don't want to exclude non-list members
from posting.")  Mr. Richardson's adaptation would involve a "nomail"
list which would be used as a registered-user list; if you wanted to
post to _any_ netbsd.org list, you'd have to join the "nomail" list
first.  Since the "nomail" list generates no mail of its own, people
who post from several addresses could sign them all up and then be
able to post from any of them.

A non-member trying to send to the list would have his/her first message
rejected, but would be invited to "register" his/her email address
(actually, join the "nomail" list) which would then cause all future
mail from that same sender to be accepted.

// This is an elegant solution which would be easy to implement and
// once set, the repeat user can simply forget about it.  Still, it
// might be tedious for a first-time user of the list; the process
// of sending a message, getting a bounce/register request, signing
// up for the nomail list, confirming the sign-up, and reposting the
// original message is rather cumbersome, even though you only have
// to do it once.  In contrast, a magic keyword in the Subject: line
// is easy to append, but you have to do it every time you post - a
// potential nuisance to _regular_ posters.

David A. Gatwood <dgatwood@globegate.utm.edu> suggested a plan which
is already being used by the linux-pmac mailing list.  The list server
checks each message for certain keywords (linux, linux-pmac, mklinux,
and such) and rejects messages that lack a matching keyword.

// I have mixed feelings about this proposal - it requires tuning, and
// it is much easier for a random SPAM to accidentally hit the right
// keyword somewhere in its message body and make it through so it may
// not be as effective.  It's also possible for a regular user to fail
// to hit a necessary keyword, especially in a short focused message.
// On the other hand, when it works, it's beautifully automatic.  It'd
// work for non-list members.  And if your message happens to lack any
// of the required keywords, it's easy to insert a keyword and resend.


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|From: Eric Damien Berna <eric@thiel.com>
|Subject: Re: Anti-SPAM proposal
|
|I don't see a problem with your proposal, and you have my support (what
|little weight that caries).
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|From: "Mauriks, Paul" <pmauriks@ue.com.au>
|To: "'mikem@leftbank.com'" <mikem@leftbank.com>
|Subject: FW: SPAM: Y2K and FEMA Compliant Project Management Solutions (fwd)
|
|Sounds like a great idea to me.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|From: Joshua E Hope <otaku@unixgeek.ml.org>
|To: Michael Maciolek <mikem@leftbank.com>
|Subject: Re: SPAM: Y2K and FEMA Compliant Project Management Solutions (fwd)
|
|The plan you suggest is actually quite viable. I've been on lists that
|implemented something similar to this. Athough, I'd suggest using a
|shorter keyword (at least for me, I love abbreviating stuff...it's great
|for UNIX, IMHO :))
|
|How about nb? (using wildcards and quotes, "* nb?" so we recognize a
|space after, or a comma, or whatever the user decides. or just "nb" would
|work too.)
|
|This is why I threw the spam back at the nbsd lists: I knew someone out
|there would come up with a great idea :)
|
|Thanks Michael...
|
|Josh Hope
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|From: "Michael C. Richardson" <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>
|To: Michael Maciolek <mikem@leftbank.com>
|Subject: Re: SPAM: Y2K and FEMA Compliant Project Management Solutions (fwd) 
|
|  I posted an alternate, but equivalent suggestion that would have solved
|it without the use of keywords in the subject line several months ago.
| 
|See:
|
|http://mail-index.netbsd.org/mlist/current-users/1998/06/11/0028.html    
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|From: "David A. Gatwood" <dgatwood@globegate.utm.edu>
|To: Michael Maciolek <mikem@leftbank.com>
|Subject: Re: SPAM: Y2K and FEMA Compliant Project Management Solutions (fwd)
|
|There's actually a better way of doing this.  The linux-pmac mailing
|list's server checks for a handful of keywords anywhere in the message
|(body, subject, whatever).  For them, those keywords include something
|like... linuxppc, linux, linux-pmac, mklinux, mac, macintosh, stuff like
|that.  Not sure about the exact list, but you get the idea.  It took a
|while to get it tuned to not reject the occasional legitimate message, but
|spam's pretty rare on that list (though ironically, one got through
|yesterday).
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------