At 2/2/04 2:30 PM, Lynn W. Taylor wrote:
>Unfortunately, it says it's from OpenSRS. That's a real problem.
When I received one of these, I looked at the headers closely, and it
appeared to be from the company that OpenSRS is planning on using for
their "anti-spam" system.
This is unfortunate. Challenge/response systems are simple abuse of the
Internet, as they merely shift the burden of filtering one's In Box from
the reader to innocent people who have had their address forged by
spammers. The extent to which they "work" now is due only to selfish
cost-shifting. If everyone used them, they would be both completely
useless and more annoying than spam.
They have many other flaws, too:
http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Rants/challenge-response.html
Personally, I don't participate in processes that abuse the Internet at
large, and I'll "confirm my address" to a system that sends annoying
challenges to innocent victims just as soon as hell freezes over.
Fortunately, the system appeared to be broken the last time I got a
confirmation, because my post appeared anyway.
If OpenSRS actually starts requiring such a confirmation before a post
appears, then you've all seen my last post (do I hear a sigh of
collective relief?!). And if, hypothetically, OpenSRS were to start
filtering their own incoming support mail using such a system, then I
suppose I would contact OpenSRS by phone when necessary, via collect
calls.
(You probably think I'm joking. I'm not.)
-- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies http://www.tigertech.net/"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." -- Darwin
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