Changes to the mailinglist setup

Hi

as the following affects all people subscribed to a list on
lists.spi-inc.org I crosspost a bit. If anyone really replies please
select one list, either spi-private or spi-general, depending on how you
want to flame me, to reply to.
Thanks.

Now, after we changed the MTAs installed on SPIs machines from Exim4 to
Postfix, together with some filters, which already seems to have dropped
the amount of spam received[1], we just did the final step to close our
lists for any spam.

[1] According to listmaster it went down to one every few days.

Now all SPI lists are closed for postings from unsubscribed members.
Every mail from a non-member now gets into the moderation queue. This
queue is processed by a listmod bot, which will ask spamassassin and
bogofilter. Based on their judgement it will either accept or delete the
mail. In case both are unsure about its ham/spam status the bot will ask
humans (our listmoderators) for help. Whatever the human decided (ham/spam),
the bot will learn from it, to get better.

This means that non-member posts get a delay of only ~5 minutes[2] added
before it reaches the list. It also means that it greatly reduces the
load of the humans doing listadmin stuff, as they only need to look at
mails where the bot is unsure.

[2] if the bot can decide himself. If a human is needed then it is of
course a bit longer but shouldnt ever be longer than 24hours.

There is a second effect with this setup - if people are subscribed with
one address but post with another. Of course they get into the
moderation queue and need to wait for the bot to look at their mail.
If that happens and one wants to avoid the 5 minute delay there are two
options:
- post from the subscribed address only, or
- subscribe the different addresses you want to post from, but set all
except one as "nomail" to not get duplicates.

This way of running lists is already used by at least the DebConf lists,
Backports.org lists and the lists run by OFTC and works damn well.

--
bye Joerg
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