>>>>> "DB" == Douglas Bates <bates@(protected)>
>>>>>   on Tue, 6 Mar 2007 11:57:28 -0600 writes:

  DB> On 3/6/07, Bert Gunter <gunter.berton@(protected):
  >> In the past 2 days I have seen a large increase of spam getting into
  >> R-help. Are others experiencing this problem? If so, has there been some
  >> change to the spam filters on the R-servers? If not, is the problem on my
  >> end?

  DB> There has indeed been an increase in the amount of spam making it
  DB> through to the list. We apologize for the inconvenience. Regretably
  DB> we will not be able to do much about it until the beginning of next
  DB> week.

  DB> Martin Maechler is on vacation at present and I am administering the
  DB> lists until he returns. Most of the time this works even though the
  DB> mail servers are in Zurich Switzerland and I am in Madison, WI, USA.
  DB> However, in the last two days we have had a surge in spam and quite a
  DB> bit of it is getting through the filters.

  DB> The filters are catching some of the spam. I think the main
  DB> difference in the last two days has been that the level of spam to the
  DB> lists has increased but it could be that something has happened to the
  DB> filters too.

I've been back today, well relaxed and tanned from the nice
vacation; thanks to all of you for taking such an interest in it:-) ;-)

With a work back-log of almost 4 weeks, I hadn't dared to look
into my R-lists inbox of > 2400 messages until about an hour ago.

"Fortunately" it's not the spammers that would have become
smarter (well they have or their hired geeks, but already a few
months ago, not just now).
The main problem has ``just'' been disk-server, then network and
file mount problems on the mail server that were unfortunately
not seen at first by our IT staff.
As a consequence, there had also been enormous (> 24 hours)
delays in mail delivery, maybe less visible on the mailing list
side of it.
As far as I can see/guess now, the spam problem should have
lasted only about one to two days --- too long of course for
you, but at least not till I had returned to work.

Yes indeed, we are sorry for this, but no, we cannot promise it
won't happen again :-\

Martin

  DB> All the lists except R-help only allow postings from subscribers so
  DB> there should very little spam on the other lists.

  DB> This subscriber-only policy can be difficult for people like me who
  DB> receive email at one address but send it from another. Either the
  DB> sender must remember to use the account that is registered for the
  DB> list or the list administrator must manually approve the posting.
  DB> Even worse, such a policy dissuades new useRs from posting because
  DB> they get a response that their message has been held pending manual
  DB> approval by the administrator. Sometimes they react by reposting the
  DB> message, then re-reposting, then ...

  DB> We have avoided instituting such a policy on R-help because of the
  DB> level of administrative work that will be involved and our desire not
  DB> to dissuade new useRs from posting to the list.

  DB> However, if this keeps up we may need to reconsider.

  DB> I would ask for the list subscribers to bear with us until Martin
  DB> returns and can check on whether something has gone wrong with the
  DB> filters.

  DB> ______________________________________________
  DB> R-help@(protected)
  DB> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
  DB> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
  DB> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

______________________________________________
R-help@(protected)
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.