On Tue, 19 Dec 2006, Hal Keen wrote:
> I'm not clear on why you expect this. I've had two and a half years on
> LISTSERV, with the first year divided between The Kludge configuration and
> one (after the upgrade where it stopped working) where I was actually
> setting all the trusted subscribers to EDITOR, before this forum gave me a
> better approach. Over this entire time, I've had exacty two attempts to spam
> my list, in spite of our inhabiting an environment extensively harvested and
> assaulted by spammers.
> I believe the primary exposure to spam comes from having the list or the
> owner's and editor's addresses too readily accessible via the Web. The
> success of my own somewhat fanatical efforts to limit that exposure would
> seem to support that notion.

I think that how much spam a list gets depends upon how large the list is,
its age, and its host site.

A large, old list will get more spam than a small, new list (yes, a small.
old list is diferent, etc.)  However, if the list is hosted at a site well
known to spammers, the previous two may not apply, or not to the same
extent.  I get lots of spam for my lists, I'm speaking from 15 years
experience (I was getting spam for one list the first day of operation).

I tend to use the "Conceal= Yes" list header keyword so the list won't
be listed in Catalist, which attracts spammers.  I rely on "word of mouth"
to spread the reputation of the list and gain new subscribers.

Douglas Winship  [log in to unmask]