Spam in the group.
Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
Is it just me or is there only spam in this group lately? Is there a way
to get rid of it?
Johann
--
Using Opera's revolutionary email client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
Kevin G. Rhoads
2) Yes, there is a way to get rid of it.
3) this has been discussed before:
Subject:
Re: SPAM
Date:
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:37:41 +0000
From:
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePoll...@NTLWorld.COM>
Organization:
Wacks Wicks Works
Newsgroups:
openwatcom.users.fortran
References:
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5
>
>
>> I don't recall what the OpenWatcom server's reaction to cancel
>> messages is. Forged cancellations is not a route that we really
>> should go down, though.
>>
> I presume you mean "forced cancellations"!
>
No. I really do mean forged. Cancelling the messages of someone else
whose posting one doesn't have direct authority over involves cancel
message forgery. See Tim Skirvin's cancel messages FAQ document.
> My NNTP server for OW is - guess what? - openwatcom.org!
>
That's not the case for other people, remember. This newsgroup
hierarchy is carried by many servers. Many people can pick these
newsgroups up on their local Usenet servers, run by their ISPs. Your
initial message in this thread, for example, passed through Highwinds
Media, Robert Joosten's erje.net, straub-nv.de, and Christof Meerwald's
servers before it reached me.
> After Easter I will probably have the time to try to set up the
> filter, and to remove the already existing SPAM.
>
Good. You can tell people what regular expressions you come up with for
picking out the junk back messages.
> Question: If posts are removed from the master server, would that
> automatically remove them from mirrors, or would each mirror's
> administrator need to be involved?
>
Those are false premises. The other servers aren't mirrors, and the
server that you use isn't a master. All servers are on an equal
footing. This is NetNews. There's no central authority, and each
server administrator owns xyr own server sets xyr own policy. Each
server administrator sets xyr own policy for honouring cancel messages,
too. (This is in M. Skirvin's FAQ document, too. I suggest reading it.)
The best that you can hope for, certainly for a retrospective cleaning
going back years, is to convince M. Chapin and server administrators
like me (and Jack Troughton, if xe is still around). You almost
certainly have no hope of (for example) cleaning all of the junk from in
the past half decade or so of back messages in the openwatcom.*
hierarchy held on the Usenet servers of Highwinds Media. You certainly
have no hope of cleaning anything out of Google Groups' back messages.
Kevin G. Rhoads
Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
<kgrh...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> 1) Yes, there is SPAM.
> 2) Yes, there is a way to get rid of it.
> 3) this has been discussed before:
[snip]
Ok. I thought the spam could (would?) be cleared at least from the
openwatcom news server (which I'm connecting directly to).
It also surprised me, sort of, that the same spam messages are not present
in the C/C++ group. Do "they" have a different spam prevention system?
On another note, and more out of curiosity than actual suggestion: is it
possible to make this group moderated for those who do not connect
directly to the openwatcom news server?
Johann
E. S. Fabian
| 1) Yes, there is SPAM.
| 2) Yes, there is a way to get rid of it.
| 3) this has been discussed before:
|
| Subject: Re: SPAM
| Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:37:41 +0000
| From: Jonathan de Boyne Pollard
What isn't clear above is:
1/ Apparently there is at least one person with authority to remove
spam from the openwatcom.org server, who in fact does do that, though
only occasionally. There have been instances that the header download
included spam messages, but the message body download removed the
headers instead of downloading the spam message bodies. Whoever that
person is performed what Mr. de Boyne Pollard calls "forged
cancellations". I would call it moderating!
2/ The vast majority of the spam messages just contain a hyperlink
with a (probably) misleading description. Another common
characteristic IIRC is the use of upper-case only headers and
messages. They are certainly easily recognized by people; probably
not very difficult even for a program.
3/ As the OP of THIS thread suggested, many of us would be happy if
just the openwatcom.org newsserver could be cleaned up. Although this
might not result in replicating servers being spam-free, at least it
would reduce spam propagation. Any server that the accepts openwatcom.org
server as its master, and thus deletes messages not on the master,
would also become spam-free.
--
Steve
Robert Miles
> Dear OW Fortran users,
>
> Is it just me or is there only spam in this group lately? Is there a way
> to get rid of it?
>
>
> Johann
Not quite only spam, but close.
My experience is that you can reduce the amount, but not
totally eliminate it, by reading the newsgroup at Google
Groups, finding all the recent spam, and using the
Google Groups method of reporting it. About 1% of it
wasn't posted through Google Groups; for that, you'll
need to learn how to report it to other newsgroups
providers, and watch out for any newsgroups providers
that happen to be collecting email addresses for
spammers.
If that's too much effort, you could check how many
on-topic posts you'd lose by telling your newsreader
to discard everything posted through Google Groups.
Robert Miles