Re: [9fans] permission bit of /mail/box

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca writes:
>
> > I've proposed getting rid of the gateway on several occasions, but
> > always met with resistance.  I say go for it.  USENET couldn't even
> > charitably be considered the CB radio of the Internet now.
>
> i search on google news all the time, and only the 9fans archive --
> wouldn't like to see that go...
>
> i'd say strip the email is a better idea.  even if not stripped on the
> psu.edu archive site that's still an improvement.
>
> by the way, if you look at pse.edu archives of 9fans you'll see that
> messages appear to contain only 9fans@cse address, so the only thing
> you're left with, that contains the original poster's email address,
> are the raw mailbox archives there.
>
> Judging from the fact that none of the addresses i've previously
> posted to 9fans from are affected (i.e.  the virus can find only the most
> recent posts on usenet), i'd say substituting something bogus at the
> usenet gateway will fix at least 90% of our problems...

For years I've been meaning to create a searchable archive of 9fans.
(It's not a difficult thing to do, I've just been too lazy to actually
do it.)  If a decent interface to search the list archives existed, I
don't think it'd be a big deal to turn off the usenet gateway.  One
could make it password protected, but anyone could get a password
automatically, to defeat the automated harvesters.

But I question whether it would fix the spam problem.  Google already
has archives going back years; one can't really get rid of those, and
they contain many addresses that are still valid.

Btw- while the `archiver' thing mailman uses on lists.cse.psu.edu sucks,
there is a link to the ``raw mailbox'' or some such there, from whence
you can download the entire archives of 9fans since it was moved to
mailman.  That contains full headers.  Further, Scott has links to older
archives on his web page, if I'm not mistaken.

	- Dan C.