[sf-lug] Don't do that! ("If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders" ...)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Yeah, don't do that ...

{headdesk}

The reasons why deploying a 'Challenge-Response' software setup onto the
Internet is evil and will get you quickly classified as a spam-source
were long ago widely FAQed.  I happen to host one of those on my site, a
piece by Karsten Self:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/challenge-response.html [1] 

Around 2003 (when that was written), it became widely enough known that
C-R software was a dreadful idea that it was seldom seen for a
decade-plus.  However, like all moronic ideas on the Internet,
eventually it comes back again.

Now, the problem with Karsten's analysis is that it's gently worded and 
addresses nuances -- with the consequence that C-R devotees tend to
bounce of it thinking it's just an opinion or somehow they're special
and it doesn't apply to them.  Let me be clear, then:

  People who deploy C-R software will get widely blacklisted.  Gradually
  or sometimes less so.  Period.



During the initial vogue, I started collecting pro bono publico Procmail
recipes to auto-discard then-popular C-R mails.  I might have to return
to that task and adopt it, depending.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150424021739/http://www.softwolves.pp.se/blog/2004-06-23,en


[1] Internet Archive link, in case my site's clobbered:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190723124723/http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/challenge-response.html