"Christian Huitema" <huitema@windows.microsoft.com> writes: > SPAM is a problem, but the solutions so far have a strong smell of > "throwing the baby with the bathwater." For example, a popular ISP > practice is to block all SMTP connections that are not directed to a > local ISP server: And without that practice, Christian, I'm sure I'd be getting even more spam than I do now. > There are other > irritating consequence, such as mailing restriction on IETF lists, which > we are forced to accept for the common good but which also makes > interaction harder than necessary. Thank goodness we have them. What I'm trying to say, and what some people still don't hear, is that this is no longer just an annoyance. Unfortunately, many in the IETF community still cling to the naive feeling that somehow our personal distaste at closed mailing lists or dial up lines that cannot communicate on port 25 except to authorized hosts is more important than keeping SMTP usable AT ALL. What happened to Usenet will indeed happen to SMTP if we do not stop pretending that the problem is insignificant. -- Perry E. Metzger perry@piermont.com -- "Ask not what your country can force other people to do for you..."