It's interesting. Yes, I would expect his software to require him to set it
up correctly first. Even better would be software that would collect stats
on patterns, and at least suggest that the dozens of daily email by way of
the same listserv might be a legitimate source of mail.

Spamcop email is doing something interesting, although I have not taken
large amounts of time to understand it, especially since it is in beta.
Spammers have finally gotten really good at forging headers, so that Spamcop
cannot entirely identify forgeries. So, they are inviting users to register
their mailhosts. In this case, a mailhost is registered if I either have
spamcop "pop" an account for me (although spamcop handles more protocols
than just POP), or if I have an account configured to forward to my spamcop
account. I took the time to complain about the first case: If spamcop is
popping, somewhere, their software has this configured, so why do I need to
do anything? Well, probably so someone does not have to write and debug a
bunch of code to automate their own testing. Instead, they involve the users
in submitting the tests, then responding to them. Well, OK, so I complied,
but in my case, I only pop, I don't forward, and I pop for convenience,
since I get no spam on those accounts. Now, if I understand this requirement
correctly, it mostly means that spamcop will complain less to fewer service
providers about spam, in order to avoid bothering admins who are victims of
well done forgeries.

My point is that this service is putting the onus on the user to configure
his account correctly. I assume that, should this system go from beta to
standard, and from there to required, they will show little or no sympathy
for those who cannot configure their accounts properly.

Greg Stigers, MCSA
this space for rent

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