attention network operators who are listed in blacklists! your problem is with the blockers, not the blacklist managers! (was: SPEWS?)

Greg A. Woods woods at weird.com
Fri Jun 21 19:10:03 UTC 2002


[ On Friday, June 21, 2002 at 14:48:36 (+0100), Peter Galbavy wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: SPEWS?
>
> But then there are the whacko's like SpamCop who just ignore every mail you
> send them anyway.

Why would anyone even bother to try to contact SpamCop about a listing
in the first place!?!?!?!?  SpamCop merely lists known sources of spam.
So long as spam comes from some source, it'll likely be listed by
SpamCop.  They very VERY clearly state their mode of operation and they
clearly tell those who are listed that they can only ever be de-listed
by stopping the spam (and waiting for some delay).

SpamCop really is just an impartial listing of spam sources.  Its
content is defined by its users, not by its operator -- it really is as
impartial as it can possibly be.  If its operator were to selectively
de-list some of the people who asked then the result would be that the
list would not be impartial any more.

If you want someone using the DNS-BL at bl.spamcop.net who's blocking or
filtering mail from you then you have to go directly to that person
doing the blocking and ask them to whitelist your server(s).

The same thing essentially goes for SPEWS or any other blacklist too.
If you're operating a mail server that's listed in some blacklist, or
providing connectivity for some customer who's IP#s are so listed, and
you/they are being blocked by some mailer/firewall to which you/they are
trying to connect to, then you should contact the administrators of the
mailer/firewall doing the blocking.  They're the ones in control here,
not the blacklist operators!

If you're spending all your time contacting blacklist users then maybe
you should think about why so many of your good neighbours are using
those blacklists, and why your mailer/network is getting listed in
various blacklists.

The very last thing you should do is try to contact any blacklist
operator and try to gget them to remove the entry for your server(s) or
network(s).  If there's no "de-list my server" or "re-check my server"
button on the main web site for a given blacklist then there's probably
no mechanism, formal or otherwise, for getting de-listed (and there
doesn't need to be).  Your issue is with those using the blacklist to
block your server(s) or network(s), not with the blacklist operator.

Remember if you and/or your customers (or you on behalf of your
customers) wish to connect to some remote network in order to deliver
e-mail there or whatever, then the onus is on you to figure out why
connection attempts might be being blocked and to negotiate to get the
remote operator to lift their ban, not to moan and whine about why some
shared blacklist manager might have listed your network and why they
won't remove you or why they ignore you.

Now that we've sorted out the operational procedures for dealing with
these issues can we please stop all this silly whining?  Thanks!

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;  <gwoods at acm.org>;  <g.a.woods at ieee.org>;  <woods at robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods at planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods at weird.com>



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