About SPAM-L

Submitted by dmuth on Sat, 2006-01-07 20:18. SPAM-L FAQ

This section deals with SPAM-L itself. (Newbies to SPAM-L should read this first)

What is the purpose of this FAQ?

This is not a "spam" FAQ. It is a SPAM-L FAQ, and as such does not deal with questions like "What is spam?" or "Why is spam bad?" except to point to other resources, of which there are plenty.

The table of contents from this FAQ, along with a brief revision history, is posted to the list (hopefully) every Saturday.

What is SPAM-L?

SPAM-L is a LISTSERV mailing list created on August 18th, 1995 and is dedicated to "Spam prevention and Discussion". That means discussion of spam-prevention, not debating the merits (or lack thereof) of spam. Tips, tricks, procmail recipes, resources for fighting spam, etc. are all welcome. In addition, many people copy SPAM-L on their response to a given spam. This is OK, within certain guidelines. What is not welcome is discussion along the lines of "Spam is here, get used to it!" or "Why can't spammers and everyone else just get along?", etc.

How do I subscribe?

Send an email message to LISTSERV@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the words:

subscribe SPAM-L <First name> <Last name>

in the body of the message.

If you do not want to provide your name, send this instead:

subscribe SPAM-L  Anonymous

Alternatively, you can send an e-mail to spam-l-subscribe-request@peach.ease.lsoft.com without any text in the body and the address you mail that from will be subscribed to the list.

Is there an RSS feed?

Yes. It can be found at http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=SPAM-L Note that you will have to be suscribed to the list first, then you will have to visit that link and log in so that a cookie is set in your browser.

Who owns/maintains it?

There are a couple of people who are responsible for running SPAM-L. Most of us prefer to remain semi-anonymous.

If you have an issue that I cannot handle and need to contact the other owners, the address for this (by convention) is spam-l-request@peach.ease.lsoft.com.

Is the list and/or this FAQ copyrighted?

As for the list archives:

<Begin_legal_text>
L-Soft international, Inc. owns the copyright to this compilation of Internet mailing lists (the "Compilation") and hereby grants you the right to copy the enclosed information for the sole purpose of identifying, locating and subscribing to mailing lists of interest. Any other usages of the Compilation, including, without limitation, solicitation, tele-marketing, "spamming", "mail-bombing" and "spoofing" are strictly prohibited.
<End_legal_text>

As for this FAQ, since many members of SPAM-L have contributed to it over the years, it is impossible for any one person or entity to own a copyright to it. Therefore, copying this FAQ is permissible as long as the following conditions are met:

You don't charge anyone else for the FAQ,
and you don't alter the FAQ.

That's all there is to it! An e-mail to me would be appreciated though, so I am aware of where the FAQ is being distributed and can inform the maintainers of any mirror sites when a new version of the FAQ comes out.

How many messages does SPAM-L get each day?

Roughly 100 to 125 messages per day. Be sure that you can handle the increased mail load. If this is too much, you want to consider either subscribing to individual topics or getting the list in digest or index form.

How can I stop from getting so many messages from the list?

You would need to set your options for SPAM-L in digest mode, index mode, or post-only mode.

To subscribe to digest mode, where all the messages are sent in one e-mail, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command SET SPAM-L DIGEST in the text.

Once subscribed in digest mode, you can use the following procmail recipe to split the digest back into individual messages:

:0 :
* ^From:.*Automatic.*LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
| formail -I "To: spam-l@peach.ease.lsoft.com" -ds 
>>$MAILDIR/spam-l

To subscribe to index mode, where you only get a list of the subject lines for posts sent to you, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command SET SPAM-L INDEX in the text.

If you want an HTML version of index mode, where you can click on the item and view it on the website, send an e-mail to the LISTSERV address with SET SPAM-L HTML INDEX in the text.

To have "post-only" access, where you are a member of the list and can post to it, but won't receive any messages, send the command SET SPAM-L NOMAIL to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com

To get back to receiving postings as they are made, send the command SET SPAM-L MAIL to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com

How can I determine my current subscription options?

To do this, send the command QUERY SPAM-L to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com and a list of your subscription options will be mailed to you.

OK, what is "spam", then?

Unsolicited email or USENET postings, generally of a bulk or commercial nature, although not always. Proselytizing, racist tracts, and shady pyramid schemes qualify as spam, as does more "traditional" junk mail. There's always discussion on what is and is not spam, and this FAQ is not about the definition of it. Read http://spam.abuse.net for more information about spam in general.

I want to unsubscribe, but forgot how!

Send an email message to LISTSERV@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the words "SIGNOFF SPAM-L" in the body of the message (no quotes). You MUST send this from the address you originally subscribed with!

Alternatively, you can send an e-mail to spam-l-unsubscribe-request@peach.ease.lsoft.com without any text in the body and the address you mail that from will be removed from the list.

I want to join, but I'm worried that a spammer will get my e-mail address!

SPAM-L subscriber list is NOT retrievable either by the public nor subscribers i.e., REVIEW=OWNERS. The archives are retrievable by subscribers. Thus if you don't post, it is highly unlikely that most people will know that you subscribed.

Having said this, setting your subscription options to "concealed" is really unnecessary.

How do I search SPAM-L?

To SEARCH the SPAM-L archives, send a one-line e-mail to LISTSERV@peach.ease.lsoft.com containing the line:

SEARCH (string1 OR string2) AND (string3 OR string4) IN SPAM-L

The Boolean expression above is just a small sample of the syntax available via LISTSERV technology.

Once the search is completed (usually within seconds) you will be e-mailed back a document that contains the matches of your search as well as instructions on how to retrieve copies of the original posts.

There is now also a web-searchable archive at http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A0=SPAM-L (the archive requires you to register a password before you can use it)

Finally, if you desire more information on how to search a LISTSERV-based list, you might want to visit http://www.brainyday.com/jared/search.htm instead.

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