Re: Sourceforge problems

* Wilfried Hennings <[email protected]> [2003-07-28 06:29]:
> At 26.07.2003 20:26, Justin gombos wrote:
> >Is there any chance you guys could move the project off the
> >sourceforge servers?  I always have to go through several hoops just
> >to send a simple email (like this one) to the list.
> 
> What is the problem? It works quite well for us.

It'll work for people who use their ISPs smtp server.  However,
sourceforge is using an IP blacklist the treats all mail from dynamic
IP's as spam.  Ultimately, it discriminates against the Linux
community of mutt users.  Sourceforge is sloppy about how they detect
spam.  If an IP is dynamic, they reject w/out looking further.  They
don't even have the decency to pass it through a more complete
analysis using a tool like spamassassin.  At the same time, it's
ineffective because spammers still penetrate, while legitimate users
are denied service.
 
> >Sourceforge has a screwed up spam blocking system that block legitimate 
> >traffic.
> 
> I only see the "blocking" that only list members may post to the list. You 
> haven't subscribed to the list, so you aren't allowed to post directly and 
> I got a request whether your post to the list should be approved. After 
> approving it went through, didn't it?

That was my bad.. I used the wrong address.  While mutt is good enough
to detect the email address I use for each particular mailing list, I
couldn't use mutt because of the blocking.  I had to use webmail to
post to this list, and I used the wrong webmail account.

> >When I reported the problem, they could not have cared less.
> 
> So what is the problem?

The problem is that they have adopted this poor spam blocking
technique, knowing full well that they are blocking legitimate
packets.  They try to justify it by making the claim that a majority
of the rejects are spam.  This is probably correct, but it's against
the peer to peer spirit of the Internet, and people should never
support spam blocking at the expense of cutting off legitimate
traffic.  

When I complained to the sourceforge admins, stating that I would not
support their projects until they fix the problem or whitelist my IP,
their response was that their policy was worth losing some
contributors.  I was shocked.  I expected the sourceforge community to
be more articulate.  It seems that while the talented intellectuals
are working on projects, the folks behind the scenes aren't the
brightest of the crowd.  

I will not contribute to a sourceforge project.  Contributing to a
sourceforge project would also be contributing to their spam blocking
practice.  Ethics are a priority for me.

> >I'm not sure yet whether to devote the time to becoming a developer for 
> >this project, but I imagine other legitimate users are being blocked too.
> >If I do decide to seriously become a developer of latex2rtf, then I will 
> >seriously ask if we can move the project to a different server, as I would 
> >never contribute or participate with sourceforge.
> >
> >Anyway, I just wanted to mention that latex2rtf has been working 
> >flawlessly for me for probably over a year now; but I did just write a 
> >latex file that hangs it:
> >
> >http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jgombos/ns684/quiz5/quiz5.tex
> >
> >It's very similar to all the other files I've converted, so this seems
> >odd to me.
> >
> >It's not important to me that I get this particular file to convert.
> >I'm just posting this so you guys can go on a bug hunt if you get the
> >urge.  BTW- my version of latex2rtf is probably a year or so old, so
> >that could also be the problem.
> 
> It seems this is the problem.
> Version 1.914 and the current cvs version (pre-release 1.915) convert it 
> without problem on my PC.

Thanks for pointing that out.  Looks like I should update at some point.


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