Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: SPAM filter on Community's EMail Address?

[Marganne (marganne]

At 3:18 PM -0700 6/28/07, Fred H Olson wrote:
> BTW the archives of cohousing-L which makes web pages out of posts
> "obscure" addresses from the body of messages -- the sender's address
> is obscured using an image of an at sign.
>
> ** If someone requests assistance with their subscription in a way that
> requires me to "validate" my reply to get around their spam control,
> I typically take that as indication that they dont want my help very
> much and I drop the matter...  Whitelists are very effective and
> controlling spam (that is effectively why cohousing-L rarely
> distributes SPAM), but they are a hassle for new correspondents.

SPAM programs at the mail server level and your individual computer 
level are improving all the time.

However, after many years of managing lists and web sites, my 
preferred way of getting comments is to give out a URL where people 
can fill out a form. Most fields can be optional, but it lets you 
find out more about the inquiry if it's filled in and there are no 
email addresses in the form page for harvesting by Spammers.

As long as there are mailing lists that don't go through a web form 
such as a forum, unscrupulous people will join a list like this just 
long enough to collect as many email addresses as they can.

Another suggestion -- use a 'free' email account when subscribing to 
an email list or registering at a web site you suspect might not 
honor a privacy policy. Then, if you start getting SPAM from that 
email address, you know where it originated and can stop it.

Cheers!
Marganne