[e2e] award-winning

[Joe Touch]

Ross Finlayson wrote:

> Folks, how much longer are we going to have to put up with all of the 
> spam on this mailing list?  Could the organizers please reconfigure the 
> list so that only subscribers can post to it?  (Most IETF mailing lists 
> now do this.)
> 
>     Ross.

There have been 39 posts this month. There have been 7 spams, 9 if you 
include this query and its reply. ;-) FYI, our list has statistically 
been running around 10% spam measured per-month during 2003.

We do run 'state of the art' spam filters on this list. The issue of why 
the list is not subscriber-only has been addressed before, and I will 
post a FAQ to our web pages later today.

To briefly summarize:

	- it complicates posting for members with multiple accounts
	  we choose to run this list in ways that encourage open
	  discussion and remove hurdles to posting real content

	- no method of spam filtering is perfect

We do periodically revisit the list policies and list management. Most 
recently CFPs were restricted to one 'for papers' and one 'for 
participation' per meeting (including side-meetings). (which, BTW, 
reduced the 'spam' - clutter not part of this list's charter, to support 
discussions on E2E issues - substantially).

Although we consider input from the list on such issues, no 
configuration is universally agreed, and the configuration of this list 
is neither accidental nor arbitrary.

Joe Touch
List Administrator
Postel Center Director
USC/ISI