Re: Spam through the newsgroup gateway

[Garreau, Alexandre]

On 2018-10-25 at 13:13, Bob Proulx wrote:
> Since we have been talking about the newsgroup gateway of late...
>
> The recent spam messages just now to the mailing list came through the
> newsgroup and not the mailing list.  There isn't a way to filter it
> from the mailing list since it is done upstream by Mailman outside of
> our control.
>
> It is an example of a peeve of mine with the way Mailman handles
> email.  When spam enters the newsgroup it is gateway'd directly to the
> mailing list bypassing spam filtering.  If it went through the spam
> filtering the same as other mail then I would be okay with it.  The
> only direct way to stop it is to block messages from the gateway.  And
> obviously we have already talked about why that isn't desired.
>
> Public Service Announcement: Please do not reply to spam.  If a valid
> message is in reply to a spam message then it refers to it and in a
> sense validates it.  To talk about spam please use an independent
> thread so as not to validate the original spam.

Why so?  If not sending anything to whoever sent the mail, will they
track the mailing-list or its archive to find some other mail referring
to it, and take this as an encouragement and post more spam?

Otherwise, what’s the problem of validation if it’s for a single spam?
Let’s say someone got their antispam block that spam: it seems to me
normal, whenever a discussion is being about some spam that has been
relayed by the list, that the user either see the aforementioned spam,
to aknowledge the problem other are living (and get a sample of it), or
not to see the thread at all, as they’re not concerned.

Ideally there should be a way to trigger metadata so that when you
answer to something you do while marking it as spam for people seeing
your message, like a mail header for it.