Re: What happened to comp.sys.apple2.binaries?

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <21JUL199721203653@vax2.concordia.ca>,
Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
>    The only traffic comp.binaries.apple2 now gets is spam and off-topic
>message posts, things have degraded to the point where I think moderating
>the group would now be advisable. 

   Some spammers have managed to occasionally get some crud into
moderated newsgroups I read (comp.risks, rec.humor.oracle, etc). If you
have something of a clue, normal moderation is bypassable. [And no,
I'm not going to spell it out.] My news feed here at visi.com tends
to be good enough that most of the existing automated spamkillers can
toast spams before I read them. 

   However, there are some ways around that, with PGPCancelMoose and
some others-- by arrangement, it is possible for the moderator to
electronically 'sign' postings, such that that won't be
forgeable. Then, programs watch the newsgroup and terminate any to all
posts that aren't approved. There's pretty much always some lag
between the appearance of the spam and the propagation of the cancel,
but it's by far the best method running. Some of the rather large
moderated newsgroups (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated) are running
it, and it's reported to work well.

   Unfortunately, I don't think you can get CancelMoose running
reliably without a group moderator, but that wouldn't be a bad thing
in the long run.  Bouncing all the Mac-nitwits out, the spammers, and
the jerks would be a neat thing. Then again, if you want to be
spamfree, I'd avise staying off usenet and only reading good web
sites.  [Not coincidentally, I run one of those. Zero ad banners, zero
fluff, all content.]

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein