[OT] TMDA

[Stephen Swaney]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mailscanner-bounces at lists.mailscanner.info [mailto:mailscanner-
> bounces at lists.mailscanner.info] On Behalf Of Scott Silva
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 7:00 PM
> To: mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info
> Subject: Re: [OT] TMDA
> 
> on 3-25-2008 3:03 PM Matt Kettler spake the following:
> > --[ 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.
> >
> Before or after you tossed the burning match into the pile?  ;-P

And I forgot to mention that we are seeing more and more spammers using challenge / response system to forward their evil sp(awn)am. 

Steve

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