[OT] TMDA

[Stephen Swaney]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mailscanner-bounces at lists.mailscanner.info [mailto:mailscanner-
> bounces at lists.mailscanner.info] On Behalf Of Matt Kettler
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 6:03 PM
> To: MailScanner discussion
> Subject: Re: [OT] TMDA
> 
> --[ UxBoD ]-- wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Is anybody using TMDA with Postfix, especially the challenge/response
> element of it?  Thoughts?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> 
> Beyond the fact that it irritates people (ie: every time you get
> spammed, you
> wind up sending unsolicited challenges to some innocent third party..
> In effect,
> they get spammed every time you do), there are other problems with
> TMDA.
> 
> 
> Fundamentally, TMDA boils down to a system of outsourcing your spam
> filtering
> onto others, irritating them by doing so without their consent, and
> then hoping
> they'll behave the way you want and handle it for you.
> 
> TMDA breaks down when it encounters people like me.
> 
> Whenever I get a challenge for a message I did send, I consider who
> benefits
> from the message. If the delivery of the message benefits the recipient
> more
> than me, i.e.: I'm giving away advice for free, I delete the challenge
> without
> approving it. I've already expended enough work writing a response to
> their
> question. I'm not going to jump through extra hoops after the fact to
> deliver it
> to them.
> 
> Whenever I get a challenge for a message I don't believe I sent, I
> immediately
> approve it. After all, I don't want to be responsible for them missing
> out on an
> email when I'm unsure of the content, it could be important to them...
> 
> In both cases, their system just sent me an unsolicited message. Now
> that
> they've ticked me off by spamming me, why should I cooperate? As far as
> I know,
> nobody has offered to pay me, or even politely asked me to handle their
> spam
> filtering. Why should I reward them for such impolite behavior? What
> would you
> do if your neighbor took a leaf blower and blew all his leaves into
> your yard
> without asking? would you bag them for him? I wouldn't. I'd use my leaf
> blower
> to blow them back where they came from.
> 

 Matt,

Thank you for providing the best, funniest and most thoughtful response to what is wrong with challenge / response systems I have read yet. I was writing my own response to the thread when I read yours. It's much better than mine :)

Thanks for saving me a lot of writing and I may even try to get this into the MS wiki. 

Steve

Steve Swaney
steve at fsl.com
www.fsl.com