> From: Michael Thomas <mat@xxxxxxxxx> > ... > So... instead of pointing out the obvious that > there is no silver bullet, wouldn't it be a lot > more productive to frame this debate in terms of > what incremental steps could be taken to at least > try to change the overall climate? To perhaps move > things in a direction that might be in our favor? > To perhaps be open to making some mistakes and/or > no-ops? Am I interfering with incremental debate framing, climate changing, or designing, implementing, testing, and deploying possible solutions that might be mistakes and no-ops? I hope not and I don't think so. In about 1997 Paul Vixie mentioned the notion of spam checksum clearinghouses. I pointed out the obvious problems, but 6 or 9 months later hacked a form of the idea into sendmail. The DCC is now resisting about 350,000,000 spam/week. When I heard about greylisting, I pointed out some obvious problems, but worked hard to add it to the DCC client code. That a problem seriously wants a solution does not imply that it has one. That personal immortality, matter transmission, and communicating consent to receive mail sound nice does not imply that they are possible or that they would solve more problems than they would create. Either way, lists of problems from wet bankets like me should not stop anyone from designing, implementing, testing and deploying, unless they need to sell a lot of stock beforehand. > We know spammers are smart and adaptable. The > problem is that in our paralysis, we are not. Whose paralysis do you mean, Kemo Sabe? Outside the mass media, mailing lists, and usenet, plenty is being done about spam. Some efforts have been more effective than others. Others such as laws have more future hope than past performance. Filter effectiveness above 95% is common. Reasonably spam free mailboxes that are open to mail from perfect strangers are more readily available today then they were 3 years ago. Nothing so far have been or will be a silver bullet. Unless you believe vague handwaving or swallow any of several brands of patent medicine, there is no prospect of a FUSSP (Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem). By itself, framing debates is not productive unless you're only interested in debates. Few of those who do more talking and writing about spam than administrating anti-spam mechanisms, designing, writing or deploying code, enforcing laws, or anything else that directly affects spam in more than their personal mailboxes are contributing to solutions. Vernon Schryver vjs@xxxxxxxxxxxx