[23394] in APO-L
[APO-L] APO-L: Rested, ready and spam-free for 2003
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (CharlieZ@aol.com)
Tue Jan 7 00:05:16 2003
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 00:05:00 EST
Reply-To: CharlieZ@aol.com
From: CharlieZ@aol.com
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Greetings, Brothers!
Here we are in 2003, and as promised I have some APO-L info for you as we
head into the new year.
As you may know, we made some changes in September 2002 to combat the
dreaded spam. (Not to be confused with SPAM, a registered trademark of
Hormel.)
Prior to September, APO-L was a completely open list, meaning that ANYONE
could freely post to it, and unless the LISTSERV spam filters at IUPUI
(our host organization) were triggered, all e-mails sent to the list were
sent to one and all. Despite the fact that the number of spam e-mails
getting though was relatively small (and the number being blocked by the
IUPUI LISTSERV filters was rather large), we made a few changes which
included having posts from new and unknown users sent to me for review.
(Detailed before, so I won't bore you with a repeat.)
So what's the result been? Since September 17, there have been a total
of 90 posts sent to me for review. 31 were auto-flagged by my e-mail
filter as spam (not being clearly APO related), and not approved. 2 were
initially flagged as spam, but were manually okayed shortly after being
received. (I still review them all.) 57 were okayed by my filter routine
and approved. (In some cases, I had already approved them, but I also
let the filter take a crack at them just to verify that it would
correctly identify them as being fit for APO-L consumption.)
Number of pieces of spam that have gotten through: Zero.
Not that spam will NEVER get past me and my trusty filter... but so far,
so good. And not that I expect any further problems, but if so, PLEASE
do not complain to the good people at IUPUI that host APO-L for us.
Well-meaning but misdirected complaints earlier this year put us at risk
of losing our IUPUI home, where APO-L has resided at no cost for many
years. If you have a question, concern, quibble or complaint about
APO-L, please let me or one of the other list owners know and not them.
Speaking of sponsors, we welcomed aboard Mark Stratton, long time poster
and reader and someone with an IUPUI connection, as our newest
sponsor/owner this fall. As for me, I came on board as a list
owner/moderator back in August, when long-time list owner and APO-L
goddess Ellen Kranzer joined the board for a short stint as Region I
director. Ellen's still here, but I've taken on the day to day duties
and so far she hasn't asked for them back.
All that said, let's wrap up with a few more stats and tidbits for those
of you still reading:
A rough count of messages posted in 2002 (not counting the 31 blocked
pieces of spam) was 959, but I suspect that the actual number was
slightly higher, since my own spam filter might have blocked a few from
being filed on my Mac before I became the moderator. My count for 2003
currently stands at 51.
As of this afternoon (1/6/2003), we have 411 subscribers. That number
seems to be fairly steady, but we tend to have a few come and go every
week.
As of November 6, 2002, our subscribers' e-mail addresses broke down into
these major categories (thanks to Derek Cashman for the report):
33% .edu
10% AOL
11% Yahoo
13% Hotmail
33% Other
That's it for now! Thanks to all of you for making APO-L a useful,
insightful, engaging and sometimes even entertaining resource for our
Fraternity.
Fraternally,
Charlie Zimmerman
APO-L Moderator
charliez@aol.com
