mx alex tax1a - 2020 (6)i wonder if anyone who has ever operated an smtp or irc server could have predicted any of the problems with the fediverse going on right now
i guess we'll just never know
Ben
Ben Curthoys@atax1a look it's fine, if someone sends you spam you can just block the email address they sent it from. Or you can just block their whole server. And if you don't like it you can just run your own mail server.
There's no way that spam will be a problem.
@bencurthoys at least when we run our own mailserver, other mailservers having a fight over who can send the other email, doesn't flood my queues. :)
Andre@bencurthoys @atax1a Funny thing is, managing spam for email used to be easier.
If you wanted a more aggressive anti-spam strategy, you could find an email hosting provider that ran harder rules. If there was a subnet blasting spam at you, you could block it. Domain blocks were a reasonable move.
The centralisation of the bulk of mail onto Google and Microsoft services has done nothing to abate spam -- rather, they're now a major route for spam and one can't just block the entirety of gmail to fix the problem.
Massively federated small systems with open protocols made email work and made management of email reasonable. Massive centralisation broke the interoperability; broke the culture of being able to reach out to another postmaster to deal with problems and made blocking spam terribly difficult without risking a major impact to users.
@PCOWandre @bencurthoys and welcome to why we've been locked into an eternal scream about activitypub for the past month and a half—it's going to inevitably devolve into this, badly.
Kudra 
@PCOWandre @bencurthoys @atax1a this is SUCH a salient comment and needs to be considered more widely.
jwz@PCOWandre @bencurthoys @atax1a Almost every day I think about "Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours" https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-because-it-has-all-of-yours
@jwz @bencurthoys @atax1a If one extended that to "Google, Microsoft and Fastmail", I think it'd probably be 98%. At least Fastmail appear to still be reasonable despite their growth.
n3wjack
Claudius Link@PCOWandre @bencurthoys @atax1a
So true. I'm still looking for a contact at #Google to report phishing to.
When it was sent out using a custom domain but through the Google email infrastructure (not Gmail)
So true. I'm still looking for a contact at #Google to report phishing to.
When it was sent out using a custom domain but through the Google email infrastructure (not Gmail)
@realn2s
They don't care. They don't have to care about deliverability so they don't care.
They don't care. They don't have to care about deliverability so they don't care.
FKA ZOGequivalents of rspamd for fediverse coming in 3.. 2.. 1..
(I'm aware blocklists etc are already starting to show up)
@zog Yeah, but the blocklists I've seen published are generally absolute shit. They include no justification or explanation other than someone involved in the blocklist at some point added a domain.
Then there's the blocklists that include all the large instances which seem to be designed to encourage the noobs to break shit.
I can't really see this place being that appealing to spammers. The market isn't so gullible (yet) and the effort to set up an instance just to fire spam and get it banned is heavy.
Starting with some classic DNS verification type rules would probably be useful. Fedi-SPF record-thing.
Scotchfairy@bencurthoys @atax1a "just run your own mail server"
I know experienced system administrators who would have a meltdown upon hearing those words. NoooOOoo! Not again! Admitting you understand mail routing ensures you will be doomed to be the mail admin forever.
*twitch*
#No #PleaseNo
I know experienced system administrators who would have a meltdown upon hearing those words. NoooOOoo! Not again! Admitting you understand mail routing ensures you will be doomed to be the mail admin forever.
*twitch*
#No #PleaseNo
The fediverse will reinvent wheels by slicing the trees in front of the tire shop while older people in the distance are yelling incomprehensible wisdom.
It always happens, there’s a generational gap.
In the end we will have as “fine” solutions as we have for email.
(The pain!)
But maybe, just maybe, we’ll get something new, something we don’t have yet, like - just made this up - webs of trust of instances vouching for each other.
This is fine.