From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ron minnich To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] re: spam filtering fs In-Reply-To: <5019caffe3f10e82a2ee6ccadc5f1733@yourdomain.dom> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 19:43:17 -0600 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 28ab7e56-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 what if we chuck smtp altogether? no matter how you cut it, the problem originates with smtp and its dependence on the kindness of strangers. That was all fine back in The Good Old Days, but it really sucks now. Could we set up a mail protocol that requires something like this: import somewhere /mail /mail then open files in there and write to them. Maybe just one file, called 'mailto' or some such. The fact that you can import means that you have gotten inside a trust boundary. You'll have a verifiable trace of who wrote what when. If you're filtering messages after you get them, it's already too late -- they've wasted your disk space and your net bandwidth. The numbers for ISPs are depressing, in that most of their net bandwidth is SPAM-width. Obviously you've got to have hosts that span multiple trust boundaries. Maybe that's too easy to get around. Also, this removes the ability of someone you don't know to send you mail, but I'm about ready to give that up, as most of the people I don't know who send me mail now want my bank account numbers or want to send me a ruler. But this business of spam filtering sounds like negotiations with burglars after they are inside your living room and packing up your DVD collection. Just wondering. ron