Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 08:58:51AM -0500, Tarus Balog wrote:
> I maintain numerous mailing lists with over 2500 subscribers. When  
> SPEWS decided to blacklist a bank of Rackspace IPs, I went to their  
> site to find out how to correct the mistake. I was greeted with "Shut  
> yer trap, spam boy" and other such wonderful, professional comments.  

Heh. See my other post re: rackspace.

> Once I got the new IP address, I sent out a notice to the list that if  
> they used SPEWS, and we were blacklisted again, I would not make any  
> effort to correct it.

Good response. I also run a list with around 2200 subscribers, among
other, smaller, lists. I've never been blacklisted for the list, though
our old server IP was listed in rfc-ignorant because I'd inadvertently
procmail filtered 'abuse AT webstandards.org' into a seldom-read mailbox.

Yes, some BLs are seemingly random and arbitrary, but you make your
tradeoffs in choosing them. Anyone who uses SPEWS level 2 after reading
their FAQ and expects excellent customer service is probably worthy of
scorn, but many people are guilty of stupidity in other areas, too. Like
hosting anything on Rackspace even though they're a well-known spam
support organization with two ROKSO listings among their current customer
base, and many more in the past.
 
> My IP was also blacklisted by AOL. There was a link to a thoughtful  
> page on how to get your IP removed, and one e-mail later the problem  
> was corrected (still don't know why I was included - I do not run an  
> open relay).

I agree - Carl Hutzler at AOL is great. What was the IP that got listed?
Did AOL provide any reason (even a code in the rejection message)?

> >Why I Won't Use SPEWS article:
> >http://www.clapper.org/spam/spews.html
> >
> 
> Preach on.

SPEWS doesn't list 63.220.32.0-63.220.38.255 anymore. It's clear from
this guy's rant that he doesn't understand the difference between Level
1 and Level 2 SPEWS listings, in any case. Again, stupidity seems
praiseworthy when the stupid say things you agree with, I suppose, and
damning otherwise.

Maggy's story[1] in particular illustrates why SPEWS continues to exist.
Many companies don't accept abuse complaints from anyone but /their own
customers/, and many ignore even those. How, then, are we to bring any
pressure to bear on these bad actors?

Steve

[1] I've known Maggy for years, friends of mine host with her or have in
the past, and I have a great deal of respect for her as an admin and as
an artist and a friend. But she hosts with CAIS, and CAIS supports
spammers. Even now, two years after the SPEWS incident. When we had
trouble with Inflow (who can take a leap as far as I'm concerned, and
who are /still/ hosting Scott Richter, Josh Baer, and others; Richter
alone is said to account for over 10% of the spam you get) we moved to
Springboard.

-- 
hesketh.com/inc. v: +1(919)834-2552 f: +1(919)834-2554 w: http://hesketh.com
Buy "Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation, 2/e" today!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159059231X/heskecominc-20/ref=nosim/