[Techtalk] Over-zealous spam filtering (by Raven's ISP?)

[Charlotte Oliver]

Hello all -


The issue here seems not so much to be Raven Brooke's e-mail filtering
methods, but the language of the reply.

Raven - I say bounce whatever you like, but it would be nice if you
could change the message to something slightly more polite.  Something
like:

"If you're a spammer, your mail is being blocked and reported to x.*
Spam does this, yadda yadda.  If you are receiving this message in
error, contact the administrators at:  <hotmail/other free address> or
<snail mail address>"

* x could be something so simple as an authoritative name for yourself.

Having worked for an ISP, I agree with Maria and others' posts that it's
not very helpful to not tell the ISPs.  I've watched the abuse
departments work and for the most part, they are overworked and can't
keep up with the sheer quantity of spam that is being reported by their
users.  Spammers outnumber them greatly and a spamrun can be very
difficult to stop.  They also have the additional burden of having to be
fair to their users and sure not to cancel innocent customers or
customers who didn't realize that spam is a problem (like our marketing
department...)

It's NOT that ISPs are lazy or don't care.  But it's a tight market for
everyone right now and the spam problem has been getting exponentially
worse in the last six months.  

Perhaps content filtering would be more effective, but again, block
whomever you want.  That's your right, since it's your server.

I also agree with people being offended by the message.  I get very
offended by the profanity in the spammers' mails (don't even get me
started on all the "Rape me, Mr. <insert name>" spam that I get) and I'd
be offended if I got the same sort of message from a bounce.

If you wanted to include profanity specifically directed at the spammers
in the bounce message, I'd cheer you on!  But I agree that if I were
innocent and received that message, I would be very unimpressed.

Some thoughts -
Charlotte