Re: This mailing list contains a significant daily intake of SPAM

I appreciate the existence of alternatives such as zinq, but the spam
hasn't annoyed me to that level (yet).  For now, I find the
scenario...interesting, but not annoying.

I have a stupid little idea I've been thinking about for a way to
track down auto-responding bots.  I'm not sure how practical it is,
but it doesn't seem like it would be difficult.  It would probably
have to be done by the mailing list manager, since (with ezmlm, at
least) he's the only one who has the whole list of subscribers.

- Sign up a new member to the mailing list, let's say
[email protected].
- Send an empty message to the mailing list using that account.
- Note whether spam gets auto-sent to [email protected]
(other than the mailing list manager, obviously).
- Somehow, send an empty message to HALF of the users on the mailing list.
- Again, note whether any spam gets sent to spam-catcher.  If [spammer
X] doesn't respond this time, he's obviously one of OTHER HALF of
users.
- Repeat the process until the spammer is pinpointed.

Obviously, this process isn't very well thought out.  But it would
probably work great for auto-responding spammers.  On the other hand,
spammers could get smart and only spam *some of the time*, but they
could still be found by doing this process multiple times.

--
Jay Sullivan