Lazy network operators

Mon Apr 12 16:40:00 UTC 2004

Robert Blayzor wrote:

> Chris Boyd wrote:
> 
>> NTL World no longer accepts abuse@ email.  You have to go to a web 
>> form that requires javascript be enabled and enter all of the 
>> information for them.  I guess that they got tired of processing the 
>> the abuse@ mail load and just bit bucketed it.
> 
> I'm late on this thread and I don't want to open a can of worms here, 
> but...
> 
> I can understand the reasoning behind what they are doing, but perhaps 
> they are taking things in the wrong direction.  Our abuse@ email address 
> is just that, abused.  Our abuse@ mailbox gets probably 500+ spams a day 
> with maybe 2-3 legit emails that we need to look at.  Sure we could run 
> anti-spam measures on the abuse@ address but that probably isn't the way 
> to go since most complaints to abuse@ are forward spam messages which 
> could be marked and then missed.
> 
> I think making a reporting page that requires jscript and such is a 
> little over the top, but I don't think a simple HTML standard web form 
> is out of the question.  We've not gone this route yet, but we may head 
> that way since I think the actual legit concerns of our abuse@ address 
> are getting lost in the fray.  Having our techs/engineers go through the 
> abuse@ box every day to play hide and seek is a bit of an agonizing task 
> that nobody really wants, especially at the volume it is today.  If 
> there was a standard that worked for this, we would certainly follow it. 
>  As it is today, we have got to find something simple that works for the 
> legit issues and something that doesn't burn up so many engineer/tech 
> cycles.

I have a couple of thoughts that I'll try to keep brief enough not
to be banned for mentioning them...

Not everybody can use an HTML browser to compose messages.

As soon as it seems like a good idea to those I am not allowed to
mention here, they will hammer on the forms just like they do the
abuse@ addresses.

OK, three....

How about all of the Service Providers decide to find a way to treat
the problem (instead of the symptoms that annoy them) and stop
the hammering on ALL accounts, including abuse@ accounts?
-- 
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