Compare Individuals White List to the BlackList

[spiralocean]

Just a thought I had to help make spamCop a better blacklist.

Everyonce in a while, email newsletters that I have signed up for appear on the blacklist.

Which means some SpamCop user has reported these as spam.

I judiciously whitelist these newsletters.

I thought that SpamCop could run some Query's on members whitelist pages against the blacklist to take some of the items off the blacklist?

Of course, then barbarious spammers could whitelist all their spam to let it through the blacklist.

Just a thought...

¢¢

[Wazoo]

I'm going to say that you answered your own query ... the white-list is a personal thing. You may have signed up for some newsletter, whereas someone else my be getting the same newsletter due a false subscription, the original owner of the e-mail address abandoned it and some new user was amazed to find that it was available, user has tried to unsubscribe 20 times and gave up and started reporting it as spam, on and on in addition to your obvious scenario ....

[StevenUnderwood]

Another possibility it that the server is running more than one list and it was not the list you were receiving tht caused the block.

[Miss Betsy]

IMHO, whitelisting is giving in to the enemy

If your newsletter is blacklisted, raise cain with the newsletter publisher about why you aren't getting your newsletter!

Miss Betsy

[dbiel]

IMHO, whitelisting is giving in to the enemy

If your newsletter is blacklisted, raise cain with the newsletter publisher about why you  aren't getting your newsletter!

Miss Betsy

15474[/snapback]

Yes and No

Remember, if you are using SpamAssassin with a low setting nearly anything might get blacklisted (dumped into heldmail) simply based on the choice of words used or other message content.

With out whitelisting there can be way too many false positives.

[Miss Betsy]

I wasn't thinking of content filters when I said that whitelisting was giving in to the enemy. Content filters are a pain for deciding what is spam and what isn't and one always has to search for false positives or gets spam in the mail folder - even with whitelisting - which is another pain. In fact, all forms of spam filtering except rejection at the server puts the recipient to some sort of extra work (or in the case of challenge demands puts completely innocent senders to work). Nobody should be inconvenienced except the *senders* who are using a spammy IP address (in the normal course of things - sometimes mistakes happen).

If one has to whitelist because the IP address where your favorite newsletter comes from gets on blocklists on a regular basis, then one should complain to the newsletter publisher rather than put yourself out by whitelisting. If they want you to get the newsletter, then let them fix it from their end.

Miss Betsy

[StevenUnderwood]

I basically agree with you Miss Betsy if the mail system you are using actually does the rejects. The spamcop email system does not, however, so it limits the amount of work I need to do by whitelisting any valid messages I find in my Held Mail folder. They will never be caught again.

I do notify the sender that they are on such-n-such blocklist or that their spamassassin score triggered a hold on my system and forward them the headers so they can be aware of the problems.

I have recently had one of my smaller lists simply abandon the list and start fresh because of the blocking and bounces he was receiving. They have started a confirmed opt-in list and will be very strict about bounces.