RE: About Animals

[John Beckett]

I have no idea how this spam appeared on vim_mac. I am a manager
for the Vim groups (actually, the only manager for vim_mac,
apart from Bram who naturally does not get involved in
moderating messages).

Google Groups has had a dramatic increase in spam in the last
few days, with over 40 spam attempts to the Vim groups in the
last three days (a spammer creates an account then sends a
message to a group; that message appears in a moderation queue
for a manager to approve or reject).

Anyway, I am certain that I clicked the "Spam" button in the
management interface for this particular message, yet it was
sent to the group (I have deleted it from the Google Groups
archive). The gmail servers have been experiencing problems
lately; perhaps some overload condition caused the Google Groups
system to malfunction.

I'm telling you all this to work off some steam: I am beginning
to think that Google Groups is a bit of a disaster because it is
too attractive and easy a target for spammers.

John

[Tony Mechelynck]

Steam locomotives (when they existed, and wherever they still exist)
always have a safety valve, and it's for a reason. Let steam build up
too much pressure, and you burst.

Spam is a nuisance, and I think it is more obvious every day that,
like some diseases (AIDS, epilepsy, malignant cancerous tumors,
multiple sclerosis, ...), you can treat it some, but you can't win it
over. John, if it weren't for you, I don't know in what shape the Vim
groups would be. I also know that nobody's perfect: not me, not you,
not the Google people, nobody. Let's just each fill up our own tasks
as best we can, and hope for the better.


Best regards,
Tony.
--
Do you realize how many holes there could be if people would just take
the time to take the dirt out of them?