[SpamCop-List] Re: make it clear

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"Mike Easter" <MikeE at ster.invalid> wrote in message 
news:dco815$2o4$1 at news.spamcop.net...
> Mike Easter wrote:
>
> <old faq>
>> SpamKiller from Minute Group is an outlook plugin 
>> which uses the
>> Spamcop list to filter mail. It seems to use 
>> SpamCop's list
>> exclusively for it's filtering logic.
>> </snip>
>
>> SpamKiller is a bad idea.
>
> There may be some confusion about what SpamKiller is. 
> SK McAfee is this
> http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=123&cid=3213 - 
> - I guess we
> could call that SK-McAfee.  The link which the SC faq 
> provided was to
> here 
> http://www.minutegroup.com/prodpg_spamkiller.htm --  
> which I guess
> we could call SK-Minute or SK-Payya Tec.
>
> If a person were looking for an enduser system which 
> uses DNSbl/s and
> can use the SCbl they might consider SpamPal or 
> others, but I think
> someone or Don decided to just back off from the 
> business of mentioning
> anything besides SpamAssassin.  How hard do you think 
> it would be to
> talk about how that faq page should mention SpamPal 
> instead of the
> MinuteGroup SpamKiller and have the faq be changed 
> any time soon?
>
> There is something paradoxical about that.  Under 
> some conditions the
> faq is impossible to change.  Under other conditions 
> it is easy to
> change.  The same page makes a disclaimer.  The same 
> page mentions
> SpamAssassin.  The same page used to mention 
> SK-Minute and provide a
> link.  Why shouldn't the same page mention SpamPal 
> and provide a link?
> Many people around here and other newsgroups commend 
> SpamPal as a
> valuable way to use DNSbl/s such as SpamCop's, SP is 
> free and well
> supported, like SA.
>
> Why should /n/x users be provided access to a link 
> about SA, but Win
> users not provided access to a link about SP?  It 
> actually doesn't make
> any sense.
>
> The fact that such products compete with the SpamCop 
> business of
> providing filtered mailservice should mean that there 
> shouldn't even be
> a link to SpamAssassin either.
>
>
> -- 
> Mike Easter
> kibitzer, not SC admin
>

Might's well admit it, really, that SC has 
de-progressed into an oprhaned set of newsgroups with 
no official support and no solid link to be sure that 
those who DO do the support are kept current with the 
latest changes and goings on.
   There are the loyal and trusted people here, and 
they work hard, and have the best of intentions, but I 
worry that they're quickly approaching a point of 
diminishing returns, or maybe even already have without 
realizing it.

Spamcop, IMO, is a tool only, and not even the tool it 
used to be, although it does in several ways "keep up" 
with the spammer's strategies to a fair degree.  It's 
probably my perpetual beginner status, but it seems now 
that all SC is, really, is more, sometimes less, a 
location where several tools at once can be run against 
a header set.  And that's all it is, and isn't 
progressing anywhere positive.  Some other places are 
beginning to be similar but so far as I know, no one 
has as yet put together a collection of tools as SC has 
and has had for some time, that operates with so little 
effort on the part of the complainer.  But lately it's 
stagnating.   To me that's important because I can't 
keep up with the comings and goings of all those tools 
but I get a little better with it every day.  There are 
things that SC just doesn't do, and that no one has any 
intention of having it do, so we're left to our own to 
find other methodologies.

As for the newsgroup succumbing and going away, I say 
if that's how they feel, then let it be.  I've no wish 
to be where I'm not wanted.  I seldom able to 
contribute anything other than a few confirms to the 
bl, I'm sure.
   So, if there's no newsgroup, and the crowd here 
insists on a newsgroup, well, from what I read, it's 
not that hard to create a group.

What really bugs me is, the old saw about 20% of the 
people doing 80% of the work that gets done is dismally 
out of kilter here.  It's a very small percentage of 
people doing ALL the work here, and that's not fair in 
my book.  It seems to give new meaning to "thankless" 
tasks.

Oh well, enough fitching for now I guess.  I think I'm 
just disappointed that my predictions of a couple years 
ago about SC's future are coming true, but it is taking 
longer than I thought it would.  Sometimes momentum can 
be a very powerful thing indeed.

Regards to all who deserve it, and you know who you 
are,

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