Debian Bug report logs - #407530
Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection

Package: mailman; Maintainer for mailman is Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>; Source for mailman is src:mailman (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>

Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:48:11 UTC

Severity: wishlist

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Report forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>:
New Bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <[email protected]>
Subject: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:13:44 +0000
Package: mailman
Severity: wishlist

Hi,

a lot of mailing lists have posting only available to members just to
prevent spam. For these lists there should be an option that adds a link
to the „Your message is held...“ notification that will allow the
message to go through, just like the link to delete it, or the check in
the subscription handshake. This would reduce work for the list
administrator and be more friendly to the casual poster.

Thanks,
Joachim

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18.otto
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)



Information forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #10 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>
To: Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#407530: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:18:25 +0000
Hi,

Am Freitag, den 19.01.2007, 11:14 +0100 schrieb Thijs Kinkhorst:
> Hi Joachim,
> 
> > a lot of mailing lists have posting only available to members just to
> > prevent spam. For these lists there should be an option that adds a link
> > to the „Your message is held...“ notification that will allow the
> > message to go through, just like the link to delete it, or the check in
> > the subscription handshake. This would reduce work for the list
> > administrator and be more friendly to the casual poster.
> 
> Thank you for your suggestion. Spam bots register and post on my web
> forum which has email verification of registrations. So do you really
> think this would help?

If they can do that, they also could confirm the subscription
confirmation and then spam the list. But currently, only web spam bots
do that, not e-mail spam bots, do they? 

Greetings,
Joachim

-- 
Joachim "nomeata" Breitner
Debian Developer
  [email protected] | ICQ# 74513189 | GPG-Keyid: 4743206C
  JID: [email protected] | http://people.debian.org/~nomeata




Information forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #15 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>
To: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#407530: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:14:06 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Hi Joachim,

> a lot of mailing lists have posting only available to members just to
> prevent spam. For these lists there should be an option that adds a link
> to the „Your message is held...“ notification that will allow the
> message to go through, just like the link to delete it, or the check in
> the subscription handshake. This would reduce work for the list
> administrator and be more friendly to the casual poster.

Thank you for your suggestion. Spam bots register and post on my web
forum which has email verification of registrations. So do you really
think this would help?


Thijs
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Information forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #20 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>
To: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#407530: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:20:28 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
On Fri, 2007-01-19 at 10:18 +0000, Joachim Breitner wrote:
> > Thank you for your suggestion. Spam bots register and post on my web
> > forum which has email verification of registrations. So do you really
> > think this would help?
> 
> If they can do that, they also could confirm the subscription
> confirmation and then spam the list. But currently, only web spam bots
> do that, not e-mail spam bots, do they? 

Since Mailman is a high-profile mailinglist server, I think that the
simple need to click such a link would be implemented quite quickly. If
implemented upstream, this feature would reach Debian stable about 1,5
years from now the earliest, and there's a good chance that bots have
caught up by then.

I do not think that the implementation effort offsets the benefits.


Thijs
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Information forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #25 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>
To: Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#407530: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:31:18 +0000
Hi,

Am Montag, den 22.01.2007, 13:20 +0100 schrieb Thijs Kinkhorst:
> On Fri, 2007-01-19 at 10:18 +0000, Joachim Breitner wrote:
> > > Thank you for your suggestion. Spam bots register and post on my web
> > > forum which has email verification of registrations. So do you really
> > > think this would help?
> > 
> > If they can do that, they also could confirm the subscription
> > confirmation and then spam the list. But currently, only web spam bots
> > do that, not e-mail spam bots, do they? 
> 
> Since Mailman is a high-profile mailinglist server, I think that the
> simple need to click such a link would be implemented quite quickly. If
> implemented upstream, this feature would reach Debian stable about 1,5
> years from now the earliest, and there's a good chance that bots have
> caught up by then.
> 
> I do not think that the implementation effort offsets the benefits.

Hmm.  I haven’t yet seen e-mail spam direct targeted against mailing
lists. What you describe is a mixture of current web-spam-bots and
e-mail bots. As soon as the e-mail bots indeed start waiting for bounces
and activate links, they might as well register to the mailing lists. 

So I think the feature does not considerably weaken the spam-protection
provided by member-only posting, but does make life easier for both
posters and list master. 

But I can understand your point, so if you think such a feature would
not be worth it, that’s ok.

BTW, are you part of upstream of does upstream read these bug mails?

Greetings,
Joachim

-- 
Joachim "nomeata" Breitner
Debian Developer
  [email protected] | ICQ# 74513189 | GPG-Keyid: 4743206C
  JID: [email protected] | http://people.debian.org/~nomeata




Information forwarded to [email protected], Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>:
Bug#407530; Package mailman. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Mailman for Debian <[email protected]>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #30 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thijs Kinkhorst <[email protected]>
To: Joachim Breitner <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#407530: Self-Approve mails if membery-only setting is just for spam protection
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:52:46 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
On Mon, 2007-01-22 at 14:31 +0000, Joachim Breitner wrote:
> But I can understand your point, so if you think such a feature would
> not be worth it, that’s ok.

Indeed I do :)

> BTW, are you part of upstream of does upstream read these bug mails?

I don't think they do, so if you believe in this feature, feel free to
bring it to upstream's attention...


Thijs
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