Re: [PLUG] spam abatement with a challenge/response system

["Douglas Muth" <doug.muth@gmail.com>]

On 10/22/06, Jeff McAdams <jeffm@iglou.com> wrote:
> Eric wrote:
> > While exploring the internet for something else entirely I found mapSoN -
> > a challenge/response system for filtering email.
>
> I've only ever been on the receiving end of these things.
>
> I can say that they're a really good way to cut down on your email
> load...including from many people not sending spam that really have a
> legitimate basis for exchanging email with you but aren't willing to
> jump through your hoops to do it.

I run a few mailing lists and several Drupal-powered websites, all of
which are double-opt in.  Upon sending a request to join, the system
emails you back to confirm that you are in fact the owner of that
email address.

Every once in awhile, I have to deal with a user who is running such a
challenge/response system, and end up having to spend a few minutes
figuring out what account their email address is associated to,
clicking the URL in the message to whitelist myself, validating their
account by hand, and so on.  End result is that it slows things down
for the user and creates more work for me.

Current implementations of such challenge/response systems simply do
not scale if you plan on joining a lot of mailing lists or websites.
And some large and automated systems may just discard the challenge
message, making it impossible to join unless you white list their
entire domain. (then you better pray that they aren't using a
third-party email service)

Just something to keep in mind.

-- Doug
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