Anti-Spam Measures

["Bill Thebert" <bthebert@domain.elided>]

I'd like to start some discussion about anti-spam measures -- and at the
risk of sounding melodramatic, the future of "openness" on the Internet.

Several months ago, Earthlink (my ISP) was deemed to be a "spam haven", and
to be making "no genuine effort" to combat the problem. For this reason,
though I have been able to RECEIVE the ihc-digest, I've not been able to
CONTRIBUTE -- as any mail I generate from earthlink.net is repeatedly
rejected by digest.net mail handlers.  Now we learn that all of netcom.com
is to be similarly shut off from the IHC-Digest sometime around the end of
January.

The only ways that I can contribute to the digest are to: 1) abuse my
employer's e-mail servers (which doesn't help me from home), or 2)
surreptitiously locate and freeload off of some other institution's or
ISP's "open mail relays" (the very thing that earthlink and netcom are
being faulted for allowing).

Don't misunderstand me -- I support Richard's anti-spam crusade, and I
resent unsolicited commercial e-mail (and classified ad postings for "get
rich quick" and "work at home" schemes placed on my own web site) as much
as the next guy.  I simply fear that the measures that folks like Richard
are being forced to implement are undermining the very openness and
free-exchange that makes the Internet what it is.  

Perhaps I need to contact Earthlink and tell them that their lax attitude
toward anti-spam enforcement is forcing me to consider closing my Earthlink
account to seek a different ISP.  Perhaps the same is true of all netcom
subscribers. Let the forces of the market and people "voting with their
feet" coerce these ISPs into tightening their anti-spam security.

Earthlink HAS closed it's mail relay servers -- such that they no longer
accept mail relays from sources outside of the earthlink.net domain.  But
I'm not sure what else is required to get off of the Majordomo "black
list".   And my one voice surely won't make Earthlink "jump" to contact
Richard and address all of his concerns.

It simply feels like we're hurting ourselves with these measures.  Cutting
off the nose to spite the face, if you will.  We're incrementally excluding
parts of our community by fighting this anti-spam battle this way.  We're
denying ourselves the benefit of the contributions that could come from
these sources, in order to exclude the undesirable trash that occasionally
comes with it.

I'll be copying this letter to the folks at Earthlink
(support@domain.elided).  I'm not sure what it's going to take to solve
this problem to the satisfaction of mailing list administrators such as
Richard, so that Earthlink can get off the "black list", and we can return
to the "openness" that we once enjoyed. A chorus of letters such as this
one?   

Regards,

Bill Thebert
bthebert@domain.elided (aka bthebert@domain.elided)
http://www.binderbulletin.com