Re: the digest

[Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>]

[there is an administrative note at the end of this message for folks who
are having trouble posting to the list. -- rpw]

At 07:15 PM 11/9/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Is there a way to get a post-by-post email instead of a collection of 
>multiple at once? i'd much rather  have each post seperately to weed through 
>the posts to find one i'd like.

send the following message to majordomo@domain.elided to switch

unsubscribe alfa-digest
subscribe alfa

you will probably miss a few messages if you do this. you might consider
subscribing to alfa, but defering the unsubscribe to alfa-digest, until you
receive a digest, and then immediately unsubscribe from the digest format.

[the promised administrative note]

if you have suddenly started having trouble posting, well, about 2-3 weeks
ago, i added the "Relay Spam Stopper" to the list of anti-spam measures
that are in effect.

the RSS basically is a list of mail relays at various ISPs and companies
that are improperly secured against abuse by spammers. recently, Bernie
Zelazny's ISP was placed on the RSS, with consequences that he naturally
found distressing. furthermore, Compu$erve has a number of insecure mail
relays that are on the RSS, and they have apparently decided not to bother
to fix them since an AOL solution is due to replace the old C$ systems
shortly.

one confusing issue is that some mail systems, upon an RSS rejection,
report "user unknown" back to the author of the email (Bernie's mail system
did this.) they do this, while discarding a detailed message directing them
to the RSS web page. (it makes things more complicated when the user is
misinformed about the problem, but it is not within my power to fix all the
broken mail transports of the world.)

you can visit http://www.mail-abuse.org/ to learn more about the two spam
control systems that digest.net subscribes to: the RSS and the RBL. it is
interesting to note that recently, hotmail started subscribing to the RBL,
and they have observed a significant reduction in inbound spam to their
facilities.

[i would also note that the RBL, a much harsher system which digest.net
subscribes to, includes such luminaries as Real Networks, a company which
has consistently been stupid, hostile and clueless when it comes to mail
abuse and privacy policies. this is Real Network's third trip to the RBL;
twice before they made quick promises to get off the RBL. they may not
escape so quickly this time.]

richard

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