RE: [Groff] goodbye to the groff list

[Ted Harding]

Dear Roger [Cc: to groff list, for information],

On 20-Apr-04 Roger Deschner wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I am writing to let you know I will be signing off of the groff list
> later today. The postings I have recieved today are all viruses - no
> content. This situation has gotten steadily worse over the past couple
> of weeks until I can no longer tolerate it.

If you had been receiving viruses broadcast by the groff list server
then we would all have had them. I do not think I have seen a single
such mail from [Groff] today (or *any* mail from [Groff] today,
indeed not since Saturday 17 April!).

The alternative is that you (and maybe others) have been receiving
virus mails purporting to be from the groff list but in fact using
a forged "From:" address harvested by the virus from the infected
computer, as well of course "To:" addresses harvested from the same
source of which yours has had the bad luck to be selected. Did you
have "[Groff]" in the subject lines?

Another possibility (contained within the above) is that a server
at ffii.org is itself virus-infected ...

> [...]
> I also manage a number of lists. We manage the virus/spam issue with
> two simple rules:
> 
> 1. Only members can post
> 
> 2. No HTML format messages, and no attachments. Postings containing
>    either are bounced back to the sender.
> 
> These are simple to implement in the L-Soft listserv software we use.

I agree that these rules are quite effective -- the second more so
than the first, since if one of our list members is infected some
virus mails will get through to the list.

> Since I am interested in groff, I have volunteered to host the list at
> the University of Illinois at Chicago, where we can implement these
> rules, but I have not received any response.
> 
> So this is goodbye.

Sad that you feel so disillisioned that you take this step.
Please check headers of offending emails to be sure that they
really are emanating from the groff list server: normally you
should see something like

  Received: from genba.ffii.org ([212.72.72.97] helo=ffii.org)
    by serenity.mcc.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 4.20) id 1BEfMr-000GMW-CU
    for address@hidden; Sat, 17 Apr 2004 03:15:41 +0100

where for "serenity.mcc.ac.uk ... " etc. you would have your own
local mailrouter. "genba.ffii.org" is the server that distributes
the groff messages.

Best wishes,
Ted.


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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
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Date: 20-Apr-04                                       Time: 17:47:08
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