[SpamCop-List] Re: Why Am I Blocked? FAQ

[Michael Lefevre]

Miss Betsy wrote:
> "Steven Maesslein" <nobody at nowhere.invalid> wrote in message
> news:slrnd01d5d.mt.nobody at 127.0.0.1...
>> On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 17:43:47 -0500, Miss Betsy coughed into
> spamcop and
>> left this in <ctp0gk$5kj$1 at news.spamcop.net>:
>>
>> > The SpmCopDNSbl listing will expire automatically within 48
> hours
>> > of the last report of spam from it.
>>
>> This isn't quite accurate as I understand it.
>>
> Technically, you are correct.  The point of this FAQ is to go from
> 'easy to understand' general statements (for most of the people who
> come to find out why they are blocked) to the more specific
> technical details. 

It should be possible to do that by leaving out detail - making things
technically incorrect in the process of simplifying isn't good, because if
people do go further than reading the FAQ and are then told something
contradictory, it causes more problems than it solves.

> For an end user, nothing more is really
> needed to know than the IP addresses will age off the blocklist
> within a certain period of time. 

Indeed. So that's all you need to say - if you're going to go into more
detail, then the extra detail should be accurate.

And, if you're making edits anyway, "SpmCopDNSbl" is wrong.  Aside from
missing the "a" from SpamCop, it's generally called the SpamCop BL - given
that the audience for the document are unlikely to know what a DNSBL is,
there's no point in adding extra letters...

-- 
Michael