Nota Bene List and Spam

["Herbert Rubin" <hrubin () niu ! edu>]

Bottom line: it really makes sense to white list notabene@piper.hamline.edu 
if you have any control over a spam filter

Background

1.    I discovered that my university spam filter after its cut off point 
was lowered was treating my posts to a list I run (using listproc) as spam

2.    Through experimentation the IT folk (and myself)  figured out that 
there was some interaction between the listproc, outlook express as a mailer 
and the spam filter.   When  I subscribed to my list using web based 
e-mailers rather than outlook express the problem stopped occur.  When the 
IT folk subscribed from different accounts they could duplicate the problem. 
..

3.   To test matters further I changed the spam filter to let spam through 
but to give me a spam count

4.   I also temporarily ended the white listing of the notabene list to see 
how it came through, since I think it is run on a similar listproc to the my 
list and would give me a chance to see if the problem was occurring from 
posts from elsewhere. .

5.   Today I received two nb posts -- the one from Ralph Kennedy had a spam 
count of 6 and would have been stopped if I hadn't instructed the spam 
filter to let spam through.  The post by David Silver had a very low spam 
score of 1

6.   What I think is happening is some mailers are putting dollar signs in 
the headers that interact with other features in the listproc that panic the 
spam filters, but I'm just guessing

7.  Anyway if you are using a spam filter white list all important lists; of 
course that doesn't guarantee the posts you send will reach everyone

8.   Hopefully with the wide range of mailers used in the nb list I can get 
enough info to help my university IT people track down what is happening, 
but I fear it is an interaction between some listprocs and some mailers that 
some spam filters dislike and as such a problem that goes beyond one 
university.

Any ideas would of course be welcome.

Oh, I'm betting some folk will not get this post because of the spam filter 
problem.   I'd really appreciate it if either Mark or Barrie are not using 
outlook express that they would forward this post to the list. That way 
those whose spam filters shut out my message will have a chance of seeing 
this post, yet we won't all be flooded with more than 3 copies.

Sorry for the bother, but I can't think of any other way of tracking down a 
problem that might be affecting nb people who are not aware they are being 
impacted as some nb posts will get through and some will not depending on 
the mailer used (I think)

thanks


herb r


Herbert J. Rubin                                815-756-6862
Sociology-Emeritus                           hrubin@niu.edu
Northern Illinois University                131 E. Alden Place
                                                         DeKalb, Il 60115


"A community will evolve only when the people control
their means of communication."   Fanon