[bug-gs] new magic subject keyword list moderation

[Ralph Giles]

Everyone,

We're enacting a new spam/virus filter mechanism for the ghostscript.com 
mailing lists. The new method is based on a keyword whitelist mechanism. 
To wit: all messages sent to the lists *must* include the name 'artifex' 
SPELLED BACKWARD in the subject line. For example, you can just add it 
at the end in parentheses.

Messages without the magic keyword WILL BE SILENTLY DISCARDED so please 
do not forget to do this.

The list software will strip the keyword from the message before posting 
it, so it won't clutter up the archives and will be less available for 
harvesting by future malicious programs.

While we are loath to break the openness of the lists in this way, the 
level of virus and spam traffic we receive continues to grow and we feel 
this is the best approach to dealing with it. We enacted automated 
filters some time ago, and last year switched many of the lists to 
manual moderation when the automated tools couldn't keep up. But now, 
manually reviewing the thousands of messages a day (or in the case of 
the recent virus outbreak, hundreds of thousands of messages) even with 
the assistance of various filters has become too serious a burden and 
the danger of missing a few messages quite high.

Thanks for your patience,
 -r

P.S. If your mailer supports it, you can instead include the magic 
keyword on a separate 'X-Fnord: ' header line; advanced users may find 
this more convenient.

--
Ralph Giles
Ghostscript.com list admin