Blocking mail from bad places

Thu Apr 5 04:22:41 UTC 2007

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:39:55 -0400
  Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:18:36 PDT, Scott Weeks said:
>> What I meant was: when only a few folks use email, the spammers will go 
>>away.
> 
> They won't go away, they'll just go infest whatever the people are using.
> We're already seeing significant amounts of blog-comment spam, and as soon
> as the spammers find a good methodology, they'll be Myspace and YouTube
> spam (if they aren't already)....

MySpace and blog spamming can be cured instantly if users required
all public posts to be moderated rather than automatically accepted.

Many people see blogging as analogous to newspaper publishing. If
you want to be a newspaper publisher, you also need an editor to
review content printed in your paper (posted to your blog). I've posted
to the Washington Post blogs and their on-line folks read and review
each and every post to keep out the spam. Sure it's expensive, but
that's the price for quality forums. If you leave a blank canvas for
all to use, the taggers will come.

As for YouTube spamming...well, that's like classified advertising.
Some people will pay for big bold spots and some people can only
afford a two-line ad. If you want to give everyone the opportunity
to post for free, you have to accept the garbage. Do you want a
content editor to ensure policy compliance or let it be a open to
all who come?

matthew black
network services
california state university, long beach
1250 bellflower boulevard
long beach, ca  90840-0101