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List:       list-managers
Subject:    Re: NEW: List-digest - for list owners
From:       "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg () monkeys ! com>
Date:       1998-04-30 18:38:44
Message-ID: 9367.893961524 () monkeys ! com
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In message <Pine.OSF.3.96.980430113627.30038M-100000@plains.NoDak.edu>, you wro
te:

>   I don't know who you intended this for but my position is that spamming
>should be illegal.  Removing key information such as who made a post to a
>public archive is counterproductive and only affects historical data.  If
>a user absolutely does not want to have their address used then they
>should not send out any e-mail to anyone else...   
>
>   Marty    NEW-LIST Owner/Editor

I never suggested that you ``remove key information''.  I merely suggested
that you should make the processes of ``strip mining'' your web site for
large numbers of E-mail addresses unworkable for spammers.

You can do this very easily by implementing an exponential delay/backoff
for sequential fetches of web pages belonging to your site in cases where
those sequential fetches are coming from a single IP address over a short
period of time.

Quite simply, the first request for a page which might carry a ``minable''
E-mail address would come up immediately, but if a second request for a
second such page came to your web server (from the same IP address) within
(say) 10 seconds, then you would delay sending the page to the requestor
for 1 second.  If the next following request from that same IP address
also followed within 10 seconds, then you would delay sending back the
next page for 2 seconds, and then 4, and then 8, etc.

This is a simple way to make ``strip mining'' of address from your web
archives of mailing lists unworkable in practice for the person trying to
do the minimg.

Please implement it.  Other similar archiving services already have done
so.

I would be more than happy to provide any and all technical assistance you
may need in order to implement this simple delay scheme at no cost to you.

P.S.  The exponential backoff/delay scheme also has the additional advantage
of conserving your available CPU cycles and making them quickly available
to people who only want to view one or a few pages at your site.  People
who just drop by for a quick peek at a page or two will get maximal re-
sponsiveness from your web site, while others who engage in long sessions
consisting of a lot of closely-spaced page requests will not impact the
apparent speed and performance of your web service as viewed by other
``brief'' users.


-- Ron Guilmette, Roseville, California ---------- E-Scrub Technologies, Inc.
-- Deadbolt(tm) Personal E-Mail Filter demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/deadbolt/
-- Wpoison (web harvester poisoning) - demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/wpoison/

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