Lloyd Tennison wrote:
> The problem is with AOL's new policy for their feedback loop program that
> took effect September 1st. For the last several years of the program, if
> someone reported an email as SPAM, AOL sent a copy of that email, complete
> with headers, with the AOL member's address that reported the email as
> SPAM.
>
> Now, they redact that email address. They redact the username. They redact
> anything they think could be the username. (Including mailing list headers
> like Mailman - with full VERP.)
On the face of it, it seems to be a prudent move on AOL's part toward
reducing the chance the 'whistleblower' is retaliated against.
Not an unreasonable choice.
> This makes it more difficult to remove
> people who decided they no longer wanted to receive the email and were too
> lazy to unsubscribe.
>
Not sure that is relevant.
If a list was genuinely of-interest, and opt-in, and remains well-run,
it should be less hassle to a user to unsubscribe than to file a spam
report.
> Many other ISP's offer similar services, (Microsoft/Hotmail/MSN, Comcast,
> Excite, Road Runner, etc.) but they include the full headers unredacted,
> just as AOL did for years. The feedback loop is a requirement of being
> whitelisted with AOL - so it is a necessary and valuable tool - at least it
> was. Now to use it one must search exim_mainlog for the id of the email
> that was sent to the AOL member.
>
A) Easily automated
B) Exim's mainlog is not the best place to look
Where you want to grep is in the *MLM* logs and/or archives.
There will be far few entries to scan, as you start with only the
specific list and time-frame in question, not all traffic in both
directions.
> Being able to obfuscate, or easily encrypt on send and decrypt on receive
> would save a great deal of time.
Not an Exim issue.
Work with your MLM software. It can easily add recipient-unique and
poster-unique 'fingerprints' - coded or otherwise - that will almost
certainly survive redaction.
Not limited to placement in headers. Message-body head and foot add-ins
work too.
> It also makes staying whitelisted easier,
> and my servers staying whitelisted is very important to me.
>
If you are getting blacklisted (or de-whitelisted) it is the
maintainer/user/abuser of the particular list in question you need to
'educate'.
And of course, insuring that the lists are configured to prevent
outsiders posting spam.
The real-time 'QC' copies you get of activity for every list you host
should keep you well ahead of all that before you have a need to de-code
an AOL report.
If you are NOT seeing copies of posts, errors, moderation, sub/unsub and
confirmations, then your 'VIP' list is not getting as much attention as
the average university, social club, or other 'volunteer-operated' list.
Nursemaiding an MLM is not a 'fire and forget' business.
Bill
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: W B Hacker <wbh@???>
> To: exim users <exim-users@???>
> Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:24:49 +0800
> Subject: Re: [exim] Looking to Create and Addtional Header Record to Solve
> AOL Redaction Problems
>
>> Lloyd Tennison wrote:
>>> Based on To: . Because of AOL redacting email addresses from SPAM
> reports,
>>> I thought that if a new Envelope-to: (different name) was added, and the
>>> user name was split into pieces and then added some weird characters in
> the
>>> middle, AOL (and others) would not be able to redact. (From an earlier
>>> thread, Envelope-To would probably not work.)
>>>
>>> Example:
>>>
>>> Call the new header X-Ref
>>>
>>> X-Ref: exiqwerm-uqwersrs@???
>>>
>>> X-Ref: exim-users@???
>>>
>>> This would then work for both mailing lists and individual messages. Any
>>> thoughts on this? Other options also solicited.
>>>
>> ??
>>
>> Not exactly sure what 'problem' this is intended to resolve.
>>
>> Or why it is seen to be necessary. Or assumed to 'work'.
>>
>> Background? Environment? Goals?
>>
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>
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>>
>
