models, millions, and Candrama junk mail

[BOURASSA ANDRE G]

Chers CanDramatists,
Permettez-moi de repondre en francais, pour  que mon message soit le plus
clair possible.
Queatre a ete longtemps l'objet de messages parasitaires. Nous les avons
endure tant bien que mal jusqu'au jour ou quelqu'un a invente un truc pour
que ceux qui refusaient son annonce de cederom  porno soit repetee quelque
80 fois. On suggerait en effet de placer les mots "Remove" a la place du
titre et de faire "Reply". Ceux qui sont tombes dans le panneau ont
relance le message sur la liste, 80 fois. Nous avons perdu au moins 20
membres, ecoeures de ces messages desagreables qui semblaient vouloir se
multiplier a l'infini.
Apres avoir consulte le maitre de poste de l'UQAM, nous avons decouvert
que notre systeme de filtrage etait impuissant devant certains types
d'envois et que la solution la plus simple etait d'"editer" les messages.
Tous les messages a Queatre sont depuis lors achemines au moniteur qui les
autorises s'ils proviennent d'un membre et correspondent a l'ethique et
aux objectifs du groupe. Les parasites sont rejetes et les messages
individuels egares sur la liste sont reachemines a leur destinataire reel.
Sont aussi rejetes les accuses de reception reclames par certains
systemes; ils sont utiles sur une base individuelle, mais seraient une
catastrophe sur une base collective puisqu'ils sont envoyes au groupe
plutot qu'a l'individu concerne. Il s'ensuit evidemment que le monitorat
d'une liste devient pour autant un sacre boulot. Surtout que pour chaque
adresse suspecte je dois faire parvenir au maitre de poste un message
commencant pas "Ignore" ou l'intrus est identifie et ne revient plus... a
moins de changer d'adresse, auquel cas il faut recommencer.
Bon courage.
Andre G. Bourassa.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   **** **** ****  Andre G. Bourassa     Departement de theatre
  **** **** ****                         Universite du Quebec a Montreal
 **** **** ****    Tel: (514) 987-3000   C.P. 8888, succ. "Centre-ville"
**** **** ****              poste 8438   Montreal, Quebec, CANADA
         ****      Fax: (514) 987-7881   H3C 3P8
        ****       INTENET: bourassa.andre_g at uqam.ca
Site "Theatrales": http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/c2545/theatral.html
miroir europeen:   http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/sol/uqam/index.htm
Archives QUEATRE:  http://listes.cru.fr/arc/queatre@uqam.ca/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Edward Mullaly wrote:

> A few members of Candrama have been kind enough to bring to my attention the
> fact that some junk mail (spam) has been associating with the
> usually-learned discourse of this group.  While one could argue that such
> documentation of the world's cultural psyche should be of academic interest
> -- the most recent uninvited site advertising itself as the place "where
> fantasy meets reality" actually provides a not inaccurate description of the
> theatrical world -- I do agree that receiving such mail should be a matter
> of choice for the individual Candrama subscriber.
>
> Universities generally, and UNB in this particular case, are doing what they
> can to block such unwanted missives.  UNB has a 'filter list' which
> automatically checks the incoming mailing addresses to see if there are mass
> mailings coming our way.  It monitors sites with suspicious quantitative
> activity and, should the activity persist, simply blocks incoming mailings
> from that site.  Further, UNB's listserv program has its own anti-spamming
> filters for incoming mail: certain words or phrases in the title cause the
> filter to kick in, etc.  Universities are very much concerned with spam,
> less for reasons of morality or Big Brotherdom than for the clogging effect
> mass mailings can have on the whole computer system.
>
> We, as the Candrama list, really have only two options at the present time.
> We can continue to have what is so far only the occasional piece of spam,
> and simply delete it unread when it appears on our 'new mail' screen --
> which I imagine is what most of us do to at least half the email that comes
> to us anyway.  The alternative, which would solve the problem entirely, is
> to turn CanDrama into a 'private' list, a list limited to its own membership
> in terms of mailings.  Such a draconian solution would block requests for
> information, etc, from people around the world interested in Canadian
> theatre; but it would also block incoming spam (well, except for membership
> spam).
>
> My own thought, as webmeister for Candrama, is simply to delete such
> messages, with their obviously unwanted invites, from my list of unread
> mail, and to support Computer Services attempts to walk the thin line
> between protecting privacy and not becoming the moral censors of our age.
> If the membership thinks otherwise, let's discuss this.  Obviously, should
> CanDrama become the electronic equivalent of an unreconstructed 42nd St, we
> are free to look at the alternatives available at that future time.  And for
> those who feel that any filtering of messages is censorship of some sort, I
> note this morning that the Alta Vista search engine, when queried for sites
> with the word 'porn', offers for the viewer's delectation 1,410,570
> possibilities.  We live in interesting times!
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Edward Mullaly                Consensus is unnatural for us.
> Department of English         We're an English Department.  Let's
> University of New Brunswick,  act like one.
> Fredericton, NB  E3B 5A3
> CANADA  (506) 453-4676                    -- Russo, 'Straight Man'
>    fax: (506) 453-5069
>