I am unsure about two things, though I searched for items about it in this forum:
1. How do I know whether I have to undertake action, because there is (was?) a major renovation to the underlying logic of SpamCop's services? Or was this an automatically conversion of which I had no knowledge?
2. If I have to undertake something, how do I know whether I own one or more "accounts": what are they?
This all sounds rather stupid, but I cannot find anything, what to do.
TIA, Oriolus

I can't think of any major change just recently Oriolus. What is happening that you think this could be so? Are you emailing spam submissions? Can you log in to your member's page? (where you can paste in spam, the web submission page).

You could have more than one reporting account - you had difficulties before which might have ended with that situation but probably not if you have the same email address throughout - but other users here cannot tell. Don may be able to tell if you give him some details (email addresses).

Unfortunately, you make no note of just what it was exactly that you searched for or just how you conducted your search.

Did you at least start with the Pinned items seen at the 'entry' page to this Forum section? That's where it all started.

Did you give a shot to the SpamCop FAQ or even the SpamCop Wiki links found at the top of every Forum page?? As seen in the SpamCop FAQ found here;

How do I configure Mailhosts for SpamCop?
-----> Mailhost System Configuration Explanation
-----> MailHost Configuration Problems FAQ started
-----> Mailhosts Typical Questions A less technical version
-----> One version of a Step-by-step MailHost set-up
-----> "Sorry, confirmation codes do not match:" - Why?
-----> MailHostConfiguration - Wiki Version

Are you saying that absolutely none of that offered you the slightest clue as to whether you had done it yet, needed to do it yet, or if it worked after you did it? With so many other Topics/Discussion already/also existing, dealing with other folks' problems, issues, experiences with the MailHost Configuration of their Reporting Accounts, it is very hard to guess at what and how you searched and found nothing.

Just poked around and found under the tab "Mailhosts" the following (newly? there is no publication date) posted introduction to a major renovation:
"Mailhost configuration

SpamCop is undergoing a major renovation to the underlying logic which it uses to determine spam sources. Soon, all SpamCop users will be required to use this new system, completing additional setup steps. Some "unique" users may not be able to report all the spam they have in the past. "


I did more or less; I didn't visit Wiki. The next array of help on Mailhosts I only stumbled upon in descussions dating from 2004 and 2005, and I also read that "SpamCop is undergoing is operating a renovated service (or the like words: I cannot remember the exact text). I didn't find/look into all topics with the arrows, apart from one that told me the same as I found under the tab "Mailhosts" at http://www.spamcop.net/, where the other tabs reside: "Report spam"(which I always use), "Statistics", "Past Reports", and "Preferences", which I used to link KnujOn in my reports just today, JOLLY GOOD! The fact that I had to change something in my Preferences on behalf of KnujOn, I wondered around through the other tabs, and found the message mentioned above about a major renovation.

There I landed in wonder, and went to this friendly forum: thank you for your replies.

It may be so that I need to do nothing, and I think now, that I only have one account, but is this major renovation a recent affair, and do I have to follow the instructions?

TIA,
Oriolus

Mailhost configuration has been around since 2004, from your description you are already using it (though it is not mandatory for pre-existing accounts).

It is intended to avoid reporters (through the parser) mistakenly reporting their own ISPs, especially when "quick" reporting where reporters do not get to check and release each reported spam. This is often a factor when the spam you report to SpamCop is relayed/forwarded in the networks you use, before the final forwarding to SpamCop.

If there is any problem you would probably hear from your ISP(s) quickly because you will have been reporting them and they will discover you are the "source" of the spam (which is really just you forwarding it to report). You can ask Don to look at your mailhosting but if the only reason you have doubts is because you just saw the announcements then you have no need to do so.

If you are still concerned, say so, everybody wants to help you.

I really think you helped me out, Farelf. I think I joined SpamCop in 2005, so I think I use Mailhost configuration already.
I know and experience help on not only this forum but on many. It's quite a blessed thing to know that there are always people who want to help; great!

May I make one suggestion? Would it be an idea to add a "date posted" with the information under tab "Mailhosts"? It confused me; it may confuse other users.

Again, thank you,
Oriolus

I found an Email spam Filtering account for you, but it has never been used to report spam.

If you want to email me directly with the login username (email address) that you're using to report spam, I can look into things for you.

Email me at: service[at]admin.spamcop.net

Also... You can click on the Mailhosts tab after you log in and see all of the hosts that you have registered, if any. If you haven't registered your hosts, you will see a page telling you about the process instead of a page showing you the existing hosts.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -
.

Good suggestion, but we have no control over that, mostly we are just volunteers. Generally the lack of posting dates/effective dates is a big deficiency everywhere on the internet, it drives me crazy too.

In the case of the pages in the members' areas it may be more complicated than usual. One way to look for dates is to view the "page source" (page code) but these pages can be different every time they are viewed - "<!-- 05look $Revision: #1 $ produced by sc-app9 -->" (or similar) so they might be a little different depending which version presents them, for all one can know. And no dates, anyway. Another way (not reliable) is to look for the copyright notice and I see "Copyright © 1998-2006, IronPort Systems, Inc." which at least implies there is no fresh thing on the page.

Yes, it is unfortunate a person has to be a detective to work it out. I suppose that keeps the spammers (some who surely come looking for ideas) guessing too But maybe SC staff will improve it for the members. We can hope.

Ah, I see Don has offered his assistance and there may be some issue. You will sort everything out now.

That would be an "Official/Original" web-page.

And as an "Official/Original" web-page, there is nothing that can be done by folks 'here' to make any changes to that web-page. As with the Officail/Original FAQ itself, trying to get it updates, corrected, expanded, fixed has basically turned out to be a lost cause. This is the reason for the numerous attempts at generating an up-to-date and much more complete FAQ on this server.

Julian made the initial post here in the Forum announcing this "new feature" .. as you later state, this was done a few years ago, so it's hard to go with the "new" description these days. For some folks, going through the MailHost Configuration of your Rewporting Account carried no impact. For some folks, it was a life(Account)-saver. And yes, for some folks, it didn't help at all in Reporting, as their ISP/Host configuration was simpy too screwed up.

Again, you are focusing on the "Official" web-pages, please see the previous remarks. It is true that some FAQ entries "here" do point back to those same "Official" pages. However, I can tell you that one of my attempts at bringing "all" those pages into a common-set/environment here came to a halt as those with access to those "Official" pages refused to assist with my efforts. The hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours I'd spent on that effort went to naught when the tool I was using was not updated to continue to work under a newer version of the Forum application software. On the other hand, the refusal to assist continues for the remaining single-page-access-expanded version of the FAQ found here, and the Wiki format of that additional support tool.

User-to-user support for the main part. Different eyes, different backgronds, different experiences, etc.

The part that bothers me here is that you feel you have to ask this question, actually. For example, had you gone to the previously pointed to/identified SpamCop FAQ entry titled; -----> One version of a Step-by-step MailHost set-up, it would seem that you would know if you had ever done this to any of your Reporting Accounts. Other folks have pointed out some of the results had you configured your Account. It would seem that only you would have the answers to this last question.

This is still a manual operation, as far as I know. "You" need to define the e-mail account(s) involved, "you" need to handle the probe e-mails, "you" need to determine if the results are correct or not.

The issue left hanging .... your help is required to sort out just why the FAQ entries provided did not answer your initial question. Again, the "Official" pages are basically untouchable these days, but the single-pages-access-expanded version found 'here' is a live document, the Wiki is still being populated. And all of that work has been accomplished by folks volunteering their time, energy, and knowledge. Your help is being requested here.