Junk from 'vim_dev group' and 'vim_use group'

[John Beckett]

I do not understand what went wrong when 35 junk messages were recently sent to vim_use, and 15 similar junk messages to vim_dev (seem to be three-month old digests). I suppose they could be a bug within Google Groups, or craziness in a member's software.

The user name shecenon (joined Jan 2008) seems to be associated with the messages. That user is set to "No Email - read this group on the web" and (according to Google Groups search) has not posted any other messages.

I have set the user as "Member's posts are moderated" and may unsubscribe the user if it happens again (I'm not saying it's the user's fault, but we don't have time to wonder). As a favour to those reading via the web interface (when we discussed spam some months ago it was apparent that there are people who do that) I have deleted each of the junk posts. I wonder if that means that email subscribers who read after this message won't see the junk?

John

[Tony Mechelynck]

No such luck. They were sent to my gmail account as soon as published,
and even though my ISP had cut the line during part of the night I still
got them all over POP3 shortly after "ifup dsl0".

I answered Christian Ebert's comment to one of them (and changed the
Subject line), the rest I moved straight to Trash after noticing the
obsolete dates on them. I guess "vertical filing" is all that this kind
of crap deserves.

Best regards,
Tony.
--
This is the story of the bee
Whose sex is very hard to see

You cannot tell the he from the she
But she can tell, and so can he

The little bee is never still
She has no time to take the pill

And that is why, in times like these
There are so many sons of bees.

[John Beckett]

Tony Mechelynck wrote:
>> I have deleted each of the junk posts. I wonder if that means
>> that email subscribers who read after this message won't see
>> the junk?
>

> No such luck. They were sent to my gmail account as soon as
> published, and even though my ISP had cut the line during
> part of the night I still got them all over POP3 shortly
> after "ifup dsl0".

Yes, I'm afraid my brain went a bit soft after deleting the
messages from the web archive (each reqires six mouse clicks!).
Of course the messages to email subscribers are queued on the
mail server for the subscriber, and that won't be affected by
deleting stuff from the archive.

John

[John Beckett]

I have just received another two messages from the same user (now moderated, so the list won't see them). I don't see why Raúl (the other mailing list manager) should have to spend time wondering about all this, so I have unsubscribed shecenon from vim_use and vim_dev. The user can resubscribe if wanted, although of course the strange messages would need to stop. Again, I have no idea if this is anyone's fault ... but I can't spend more time on it.

John

[Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado]

Saluton John :)

On Sun 29 Mar 2009 02:02 +0200, John Beckett <j...@gmail.com> dixit:

> I do not understand what went wrong when 35 junk messages were
> recently sent to vim_use, and 15 similar junk messages to vim_dev
> (seem to be three-month old digests). I suppose they could be a bug
> within Google Groups, or craziness in a member's software.

I discovered the problem yesterday, because I was not near my PC since
Thursday. At first I thought it was a problem with the other account I
had subscribed to the list, but later discovered that this was not the
problem...

> I have set the user as "Member's posts are moderated" and may
> unsubscribe the user if it happens again (I'm not saying it's the
> user's fault, but we don't have time to wonder).

I must confess I almost banned him... I decided to check my inbox
before, just in case the problem was not the user's fault and the issue
had been discussed on the list... as it has been.

--
Raúl "DervishD" Núñez de Arenas Coronado
Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net
It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... RAmen!

[Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado]

Saluton John :)

On Sun 29 Mar 2009 09:07 +0200, John Beckett <j...@gmail.com> dixit:

> I have just received another two messages from the same user (now
> moderated, so the list won't see them). I don't see why Raúl (the
> other mailing list manager) should have to spend time wondering about
> all this, so I have unsubscribed shecenon from vim_use and vim_dev.

I would have done the same, John: as you said before, there's no point
in spending more time on this issue. The harm (if any...) done to the
members of the list receiving these messages is far greater than the
harm (again, if any) done to the unsubscribed member, who can subscribe
again if he/she wants.

From the message headers, I'm still not sure if all this is the user's
fault or some glitch at Google Groups that has been triggered by this
user, or if the problem is entirely of GG's and the user involvement is
purely accidental, but since GG is not very responsive investigating the
real root of the problem is almost impossible. And since the
unsubscription, the flood of messages seems to have stopped (at least
to my account...).