To remove the from address is not too hard. You can configure most mailer programs to do this using a script you can write in less than 10 minutes. I once wrote a script to parse every e-mail, and change the From headers as well as add a signature to the e-mail. This was so any authorized employee could send mail "as the system" (like for newsletters), simply adding one of a few tags in the subject, and the parser would change the e-mail to seem like it's coming "FROM" the correct address, add the signature and remove the tag. This took me 30 minutes to learn, do and get working using postfix. On a VERY busy system with low resources it might not be ideal, as you have the extra overhead, though with some optimal C coding and a semi decent MTA+system it should be acceptable. Beyond this, you should also be able to get addons for doing so, and I'm sure some mailers even have it. Maybe look into it for piclist, you could be lucky. And finally, if no option could be found or settled on, if the mailer is OSS you could modify it to do it for you. Essentially it's a very simple mod, the "From" MIME header has the format: From: "Name of Person" If you keep the name, but change the From address to piclist@mit.edu, you can end up with something like "Quintin Beukes" . This allows everyone to still see who it is, but the address to stay private. Obfuscation is overkill, and besides some mailers reject e-mails that have an invalid From address OR sender. If someone wanted to contact another person privately, he/she can ask on the list for the other party's e-mail. I'm sure it's not a factor of staying anonymous, as much as it is to not get spammed. Not everyone has the benefit of a high quality spam filter, and even if you do it's not nice to have to read through those mails if you find you get many false-positives. If you really want to go all out, make it an option. Make a mailing list command (like with subscribe/unsubscribe/change password/etc) with which you can toggle privacy extensions. If enabled then the mailer would change your From header to piclist@mit.edu. I for instance don't mind my address being posted as I don't have the discomfort of spam anymore, and it has happened that I urgently wanted to get hold of someone and was only successful when I used the address found on a mailing list. So I think the best is for the subscriber to selectively disable the From header, and leave it enabled as a default when you subscribe, in other words your address is sent by default, and you can turn the privacy extensions on at will. Quintin Beukes On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 9:56 PM, sergio masci wrote: > > > On Thu, 8 Oct 2009, Olin Lathrop wrote: > >> Vitaliy wrote: >> > I agree with Adam. SpamAssassin (a free server-side install) will get >> > rid of 95% of the spam for you, and there are other techniques that >> > you can use to reduce the amount of spam you get, to a tiny trickle. >> > An easier solution that many people choose, is a Gmail account. >> >> So nobody sees this as a privacy issue, with spam being only one effect of >> lack of privacy? >> > > Yes I do. > > Actually there are many mailing lists that either obfuscate or remove the > email address of the poster. There are even many software packages > designed as addons for mailing lists that will do this. Don't ask me what > they are because I can't remember off the top of my head. I looked into > this many years ago. > > Anyone who thinks including the poster's email address is the standard way > of doing things is invited to look at the way Yahoo does it. > > Regards > Sergio Masci > > (who doesn't see any private emails whatsoever arriving at this PICLIST > email address) > > P.S. if the default is to remove the posters email address then the poster > is at liberty to simply tack it on him/herself - hey presto, per user opt > in (with or without crazy obfucation)! > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist