Spam in the Debian List Archive

Problem

The Debian mailing lists block a lot of spam, but occasionally small numbers of messages get through and so the Debian list archives contain some spam email messages.

Solution

Mailing list subscribers and visitors to the web archive nominate messages that they consider to be spam. Then Debian members review the nominated messages and classify them according to the policy. Then the mailing list archives remove the messages from indexes and prevent access to the messages themselves.

Nominating a message as spam

There are several options for nominating messages as spam:

Spam removal policy

Policy corner stones

Ad hoc policy

Review standards should be set after seeing how things pan out.

For the start we accept three undisputed reviewers-ratings. If one reviewer has a different rating, there has to be a stronger majority. As formula:

same applies for Ham and Inappropriate.

I hope this would minimize the risk of unwarranted removal. A rigorous standard seems to be necessary to obtain consensus with the project. As such, the three reviewers is only a guideline, not a rule. Of course, more reviewers doing shorter reviews would help tremendously. Ultimately, guaranteeing the integrety of the list archives currently falls in the realm of the Debian listmaster. If the numbers above don't work out, the levels can be changed easily without a hassle, previous blocked content will become available again.

Practical matters

Spam nomination review

Any suggestions on the above and/or the program are of course welcome.

Suggested Improvements and Todos

People doing this

Your help is appreciated.

Debian members need a working @debian.org-address and can use the review web interface.

Everyone else can help us by nominating spam email messages.

Some coordinated efforts for specific lists are currently being run:


CategoryTeams | CategoryPermalink | CategoryListArchiveSpam