On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 14:24:26 -0400, "Olin Lathrop"
<olin_piclist@embedinc.com> said:
> Sorry this is in TECH, but it's definitely not PIC or EE and it doesn't
> seem
> right that you have to open the flood gates of OT to talk about
> legitimate
> list logistic issues.  Personally I think there should be a LIST tag, but
> since there isn't, we're left with TECH.  Or is that what ADMIN is for?
> It's never been clear to me whether ADMIN is only for messages generated
> by
> admins, or whether it is for anyone discussing list administration issue.
> In case the former, I'll stick to TECH for now.
> 
> Anyway, I've been getting increasing amounts of spam to my PIClist email
> account.  I use a different address for the PIClist partly to avoid such
> problems, but since the PIClist has been logged at various sites
> everyone's
> PIClist email address is out there for spammers to harvest.  So the
> question
> is, can the server be set up to remove the FROM: address from messages
> and
> possibly substitute the list address?  Replies to PIClist messages should
> go
> to the list anyway.  If your mail address never appears in a message
> distributed by the server, then it won't matter how widely it gets
> distributed.  Does the server have this capability?  If so, is there a
> reason not to use it?  I expect this isn't the first time this issue has
> come up on a mailing list.
> 
> Maybe I'll try a experiment.  I'll make up a totally new email address,
> use
> it exclusively for sending to the PIClist, and never otherwise give it
> out.
> I will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the first spam and
> how
> quickly it ramps up.  I'll log the number of spam messages a day and show
> the results once a reasonable amount of data has been collected.  It may
> take a day or two before I do it because I've got stuff to get done right
> now, and I have to go digging in some very old dusty control files to
> change
> everything.
> 

Hi Olin,

All the options are available, however it is on a global basis, not
per-user. So the "from" address can only be changed for all users, not
just on your account. Since there would likely be lots of side effects
it's not something that could be changed without discussion by all the
admins and checking with MIT as well to see if there is a policy already
in place.

Cheerful regards,

Bob

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