This is an edited version of the letter we list maintainers received from Tim at RootsWeb. Any questions or comments, please write me privately at schmidtm@3-cities.com ******** Spam filtering has just been enabled on all RootsWeb lists. From this point on, hopefully we all will experience a marked decrease in spam sent to our lists. When someone sends mail that ``looks like spam'' to one of our lists (more on what that means below), I'll receive a letter that looks like this: From: OURLIST-L-request@rootsweb.com Subject: we blocked some spam from your list. Hi -- This is an automated notice from the RootsWeb list server. Someone recently sent this message to your list. It looks suspiciously like spam, so it was NOT distributed to your list. However, we're sending you a copy just in case the spam detector made a mistake. If this was actually a legitimate message that shouldn't have been blocked, please forward this message to us and tell us, so we can try to make the Spam Detective a little smarter. So please give us feedback! Let us know if you start getting spam that the spamcatcher doesn't get, or if the spamcatcher gets a little too enthusiastic and blocks legit messages. WHAT'S BEING FILTERED? ------------------------ What does the list server consider spam? Here's a general summary of what it looks for: * Any message sent to more than 10 RootsWeb lists. Heavy crossposting like this is at least as bad a problem for our servers as spam is. * Messages from the faked mail host * Senders with all-numeric e-mail addresses * Senders with AOL screen names that have fewer than 3 characters or more than 10; screen names that start with a number; screen names that include punctuation * Any message from USA.NET that contains embedded punctuation, like `name@usa.net'. * A message with any known spam return addresses. Anything that matches these patterns will be bounced back to you, the listowner. If it made a mistake, just let us know: Bringing you a less spamful net -- Regards, Tim Pierce RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative system obfuscator and hack-of-all-trades Laura L Schmidt schmidtm@3-cities.com list maintainer: Franklin Co WA: WaFrankl-L@rootsweb.com Irish Research: Fianna-L@rootsweb.com SC Genealogy: SC-Genealogy-L@rootsweb.com web page coordinator: Franklin Co, WA: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wafrankl/franklin.htm