Mailhost Help

[pelham]

Just and observation. I realize that most of the "helpful" replies are given by unpaid contributors. However, you're hurting not helping spamcop when you respond in a non professional caustic way. Spamcop is a pay as you go operation, not a freebie, so most would expect it to run as a commercial enterterprise not a "club".

[turetzsr]

Just and observation.  I realize that most of the "helpful" replies are given by unpaid contributors.  However, you're hurting not helping spamcop when you respond in a non professional caustic way.  Spamcop is a pay as you go operation, not a freebie, so most would expect it to run as a commercial enterterprise not a "club".

Hi, pelham!

...FWIW, I agree with you generally. However, to be fair, I feel compelled to point out that what to one person is "a non professional caustic way" is helpful but terse to another.

...Moderators: please consider moving this to the Lounge since it is not relevant to the Mailhost beta testing. Thanks.

[StevenUnderwood]

Spamcop is a pay as you go operation

Actually, to be fair, the only part of spamcop that is pay as you go is the email service. Both the parsing/reporting and the bl are available free of charge.

I do agree that a professional answer is always better, especially to someone new to blocklists. I know that is how I became aware of spamcop.

[Miss Betsy]

The way that most long time spamcop users see the forum and the newsgroups is as a 'user' group. People are asked to be polite to newcomers, but being human, they sometimes respond in their answer to the tone of the question.

The philosophy behind having the forum and the newsgroup as a way to get help is that with a number of different posters, the questioner will get better answers and more help than with a help "desk" who won't have the varied experiences of all users at hir fingertips. It is a 'techie' concept which is strange to technically non-fluent users. Perhaps an explanation should be part of the introduction.

Occasionally, a topic (or thread in the newsgroups) will begin to be a general discussion or will veer off on a tangent. Moderators are supposed to try to move those to the appropriate place on the forum (only there is only one forum to go to which is the Lounge). In the newsgroups, people set followups to the appropriate group. A little bit of banter (or even 'heated' discussion) IMHO is not a bad thing because it does convey to newcomers that this is a 'user' group, not a 'help desk'

And there is a lot of confusion about whether spamcop reporting service is a business or a volunteer cooperative since for both the reporting service and the bl, there is no 'paid' service, just 'premiums' for 'donations.' Yet it seems to be a business, not a non-profit organization.

Miss Betsy