From: Edward Reid (edward@paleo.org)
Date: Thu Nov 14 2002 - 10:00:03 CST
At 11:45 PM -0800 11/13/02, Edward Hasbrouck wrote:
>How should we deal with the effect of spam on FAQ autoresponders?
How about requiring a simple command in the subject line? Only send the
autoresponse if the subject contains "send faq". Use a scanner so that
the words "send" and "faq" can be anywhere in the subject, upper or
lower case -- in other words, be very lenient regarding alterations
that real human fingers make. (Heck, even allow my fingers' favorite,
"sned".)
The spammers' address harvesters aren't going to pick this up, and the
spammers would not change their subject lines for one address anyway.
But people who cannot reach the FAQ via the web are generally going to
be more or less accustomed to sending commands by email to get things,
so it's likely to be a very minor hassle for them.
The disadvantage is that it requires a more sophisticated
autoresponder. Whether this is a problem depends on how you are doing
the autoresponse.
Edward Reid
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