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Spam Thresholds FAQ Skirv's Homepage - Recent Updates 25 May 2008 Beef House 2007 *Three! He's catching up, sortof!* 25 May 2008 WonderCon 2008 /Two in the same day.../ 25 May 2008 Aunt Jeanne's House, 26-27 Dec 2008 *The catch-up has begun?*/Maybe. Only maybe/ 29 Apr 2008 Sean and Sarah's Wedding /It's been a while since a new batch of pictures/*But this one demanded a fast turn-around!* 02 Apr 2008 New Cane Toads Update *CANE TOAD CULL!* 17 Jan 2008 Moderation Page Update *Since he's already moving everything around...*/All of the groups have moved now. Wow!/ 13 Jan 2008 Pictures have moved www.killfile.org also has a new home... 19 Dec 2007 Skirv's PGP/GPG Signatures /This might help matters somewhat with his signing stuff/ 06 Dec 2007 New Work Page *The new picture is a definite step up* 06 Dec 2007 New CV /So begins the migration/ Personal Info Home Personal Pictures Friends History Archives GPG Sigs Movie Reviews Projects Projects Software Resumé Usenet Posts Moderation FAQs Killfile B8MB Other Sites Work skirvin.net killfile.org Journal Misc Mirrors Bookmarks Contact Info Spam Thresholds FAQ FAQs FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds and guidelinesFrom: tskirvin@killfile.org (Tim Skirvin)Reply-to: tskirvin@killfile.orgNewsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins,news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,news.admin.net-abuse.sightings,news.admin.net-abuse.misc,news.answersSubject: FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds and guidelinesFollowup-To: news.admin.net-abuse.usenetApproved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU, nanas-req@ravenna.comSummary: This posting contains the current Spam definitions, thresholds, and guidelines, as used by most major spam cancellers and news administrators. Archive-name: usenet/spam-faqPosting-Frequency: weeklyLast-modified: 1998/11/10URL: http://www.killfile.org/faqs/spam.htmlMaintainer: Tim SkirvinOriginal-Author: Chris Lewis Current Spam thresholds and guidelines.This article is intended to describe the current consensus spam thresholds and ensure that the definitions of these terms are available and consistent.It is believed that most, if not all, spam cancellers use these terms anddefinitions in their work; however, many other people use the termsinappropriately, which leands to confusion in discussions. This is aninformal FAQ aimed at clarity and understanding, not anal-retentivecorrectness.Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP) has the same meaning as the term "spam" usually carries, but it is more accurate and self-explanatory. EMPmeans, essentially, "too many separate copies of a substantively identical article.""Substantively identical" means that the material in each articleis sufficiently similar to construe the same message. The signatureis included in the determination. These are examples of substantivelyidentical articles: byte-for-byte identical messages otherwise identical postings minimally customized for each group it appears in. advertising the same service. articles that consist solely of the same signature articles which consist of inclusions of other users' postings, but are otherwise identical.Cross-posting means that a single message appears in more than onegroup. Most newsreaders allow you to specify more than one group in aposting.Excessive Crossposting (ECP) refers to where a "lot" of postings to more than one group each have been made.Some people think cross-posting is "bad". In and of itself, it's good behaviour - it allows you to reach more groups with less impact on the net. Especially if you set the Followup-to: header to one group. It is "bad" when it's done to attack newsgroups or provoke flamewars (like cross-posting how to cook a cat between alt.tasteless and rec.pet.cats), but this is beyond the scope of this FAQ.This author considers the term "spam" to mean excessive postings ofEMP and/or ECP variety. That is, "spam", is a generic term for severaldifferent things. The term was originally supposed to mean EMPs only, but most people use "spam" to mean "any excessive posting".A spam, EMP, or ECP therefore refers to a posting that has been posted tomany places. There is a consensus that there is a point at which it is abuse, and is subject to advisory cancellation.A formula has been invented by Seth Breidbart which attempts toquantify the degree of "badness" of a spam (whether EMP or ECP) as asingle number. The Breidbart Index (BI) is defined as the sum of thesquare roots of n (n is the number of newsgroups each copy was postedto).Example: If two copies of a posting are made, one to 9 groups, and oneto 16, the BI index is sqrt(9)+sqrt(16) = 3+4 = 7.The BI2 (Breidbart Index, version 2) is an experimental metric, whichmay eventually replace the BI. It is calculated by computing the sumof the square roots of n, plus the sum of n, and dividing by two. Eg:one posting to 9, and one to 16 is (sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) + 9 + 16) / 2 ( 3 + 4 + 9 + 16 ) / 2 = 32 / 2 = 16The BI2 is more "aggressive" than the BI, intended to cut off the "higherend". BI allows about 125 newsgroups maximum. BI2 allows a maximum of35.A slightly less aggressive index is the SBI (Skirvin-Breidbart Index); itis calculated much the same as the BI2, but sums the number of groups inthe Followup-to: header (if available), rather than the newsgroups. Eg:one posting to 9 groups, and one to 16 with followups set to 4 is (sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) + 9 + 4) / 2 ( 3 + 4 + 9 + 4 ) / 2 = 20 / 2 = 10Except in nl.*, where the SBI is followed, the BI2 and SBI are not used to detemine whether a spam is cancellable.The thresholds for spam cancels are based _only_ on one or more of the followingmeasures: The BI is 20 or greater over a 45 day period. Is a continuation of a previous EMP/ECP, within a 45 day sliding window. That is: if the articles posted within the past 45 days exceeds a BI threshold of 20, it gets removed, unless the originator has made a clear and obvious effort to cease spamming (which includes an undertaking to do so posted in news.admin.net-abuse.misc). This includes "make money fast" schemes which passed the EMP/ECP thresholds several years ago. This author recommends one posting cross-posted to no more than 10 groups, no more often than once every two weeks (a BI of 3).A single posting cannot be cancellable - to reach a BI of 20, it wouldhave to be cross-posted to 400 groups. This isn't possible due tolimitations in Usenet software.These thresholds nominally apply to all hierarchies - not just the Big-8and alt.*. Many hierarchies have more restrictive rules, which are decided upon and enforced by their users and administrators; they may also opt outof the cancellations, at the discretion of the same users and admins.These cancels have nothing whatsoever to do with the contents of themessage. It doesn't matter if it's an advertisement, it doesn't matterif it's abusive, it doesn't matter whether it's on-topic in the groupsit was posted in, it doesn't matter whether the posting is for a "goodcause" or not - spam is cancelled regardless, based on _how many times_ itwas said and not _what_ was said.Administrators wishing to ignore spam cancels can "alias out" thesite "cyberspam", and the cancels will not affect your system. Thisis normally done at your feed site, but patches are available forINN to allow you to reject spam cancels on your own system. Ask innews.admin.net-abuse.usenetif you need this patch.Further literature on posting etiquette and related information: the newsgroup news.announce.newusers "What is Usenet", by Salzenberg, Spafford and Moraes "What is Usenet? A second opinion.", by Vielmetti "FAQ: Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It", by Furr. "A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community", by Von Rospach, et al "Rules for posting to Usenet", by Horton, Spafford & Moraes "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette", by Templeton et al Numerous books and publications on Usenet, such as O'Reilly's "Stopping Numerous books and publications on Usenet, such as O'Reilly's Spam" (Schwartz and Garfinkel), the "Whole Internet Guide and Catalog" (Krol), "Usenet Handbook" (Harrison), etc. "Cancel Messages: Frequently Asked Questions", by Skirvin RFC 1855 - Netiquette Guidelines The above FAQs are also mirrored at various sites, including as ftp.sunet.se,mirror.aol.com, ftp.uu.net, ftp.uni-paderborn.de, nctuccca.edu.tw,hwarang.postech.ac.kr, ftp.hk.super.net etc.A mailing list has been set up to assist those wishing to post commercialadvertisements on Usenet in a responsible fashion. Email your questions tocommerce@acpub.duke.edu. ![[ ,,^.,^,, ]](http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/pics/lynxfriend.gif) Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@killfile.org) Last Updated: Mon, Jan 07 2008 This Page is Lynx-Friendly 4655 accesses since 08 Jan 2008  <FISH>< Skirv's Pages:  Webkillfile.org |
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