Recent spam on comp.lang.c (was Re: bart again (UCX64))

From	Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c, comp.misc
Subject	Recent spam on comp.lang.c (was Re: bart again (UCX64))
Date	2023-09-08 12:22 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<fVDKthnhfJ8657wgg@bongo-ra.co> (permalink)
References	<87h6o63g31.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <3607596852@f172.n1.z21.fsxnet> <udcl13$30q7k$1@dont-email.me> <uddvnt$3a9si$1@dont-email.me> <ude6v5$3av40$2@dont-email.me>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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Note first that this is a continuation of a thread on  comp.lang.c
which I'm crossposting to  comp.misc  for good reasons I will explain
below.

On Fri, 8 Sep 2023 00:12:21 -0400
James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On 9/7/23 22:09, candy wrote:
> > On Thu, 7 Sep 2023 16:00:02 +0200, David Brown wrote:
> ...
> >> Then I strongly recommend you get a newsreader - it makes Usenet much
> >> nicer.  If you don't have any preference or thoughts, then Thunderbird
> >> is a reasonable starting point that many people use, and which works
> >> fine on Windows, Linux, and other *nix.  There are of course many other
> >> newsreaders available.  Make a free account at
> >> news.eternal-september.org.  Again, there are other Usenet servers, but
> >> that one is free and popular.

Or , even better , have a read in the recent  "Free News Servers Listing"
thread on  news.admin.peering .For one thing , one should have a plan B
(consider the recent disappearance of AIOE) and , second , it's best if
the load is spread among various servers , especially if we're talking
about free ones where the service is just a labour of love.

> >> All this will make your posts fit far better with other posts and
> >> threads, and make it a lot easier for others to see where your posts fit
> >> in.  That in turn makes the whole experience better for you.
> > 
> > Ok I installed pan. How do I block all the spam??

The right place to ask such questions is  news.software.readers .But I'm not
crossposting there because the thread would start getting chaotic. I am
crossposting on  comp.misc  because there are at least 2 related ongoing
threads at present. Really , people should explore every now and again beyond
their normal newsgroups just to see what's available and what's on topic
where. With that in mind , I'm not even going to mention specific thread
subjects , just pay (for  comp.lang.c  people) a visit to  comp.misc  and the
relevant threads will be instantly obvious. People on  comp.misc  don't bite ,
I promise.

> With difficulty. :-(

I believe the simplest algorithm is to filter all googlegroup posts (possibly
just for  comp.lang.c) and then have a whitelist for legitimate posters. If a
newsreader makes this difficult then one needs to get a better newsreader.

> Spam on this newsgroup is at an all-time high, and oddly enough, the
> vast majority of it seems to involve apparently illegal commerce, which
> I would expect to draw the attention of law enforcement.

Yes , this seems a bit strange but I'm guessing that it's very hard for law
enforcement to find where the spam comes from and they may not even have
jurisdiction. Note also that the seriousness of the crime(s) involved depends
on whether what's advertised is actually available for sale. If it isn't then
the potential crime may be just a scam or just spam instead of drugs
trafficking. It could be that a malfunctioning script forgotten by humans is
responsible for the spam.

> It is getting
> through both eternal-september's filters, and Google's.

I don't think that Google applies any filters for usenet.

> I've created a
> Mozilla Thunderbird filter that catches about two dozen different common
> phrases, which seems to catch most of them. I'm resisting adding
> "chocolate bar" to the list - I might very well want to read a message
> about chocolate bars.
> I'm afraid that unless somebody figures out a way to put the people who
> are doing this in jail, this might be the beginning of the end for
> comp.lang.c, and if it spreads to other newsgroups, the end for usenet
> newsgroups.

You are being melodramatic. Spam comes and goes. I actually started a thread
a while ago to comment on the fact that the choice of groups to spam doesn't
seem to follow rhyme or reason. Noone had any convincing theories but the
discussion was interesting. The thread is

    Newsgroups: comp.misc
    Subject: A bizarre case of spam
    Message-ID: <clgDimG5q9ZFGtJeRrt@bongo-ra.co>
    Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 20:01:10 GMT

The recent spam on  comp.lang.c  is easy to filter , hardly anything which
will bring about the end of the group. For a healthy usenet a good advice is
"people should explore every now and again beyond their normal newsgroups
just to see what's available and what's on topic where". On topic posts in as
many groups as possible (instead of throwing everything in whatever group(s)
one is used to) is the best way to preserve usenet. Around such lines , there
was an increase recently in posts about chatbots (including on  comp.lang.c)
but hardly anything was (cross)posted on  comp.ai.shells  which again exists
for this very topic.

Finally (for  comp.lang.c  only) , I find even more annoying than the spam
the fact that people don't choose an appropriate  Subject:  for their posts.
Naming a thread  "bart again (UCX64)"  is a poor choice anyway but it
contains a long subthread on whether the closing brace of a function is
reachable and whether a compiler should give a warning. It would certainly
help if posts relevant to this reflected it in the  Subject: .There was
another recent very long thread ("C vs Haskell for XML parsing") which
touched on a variety of topics including whether C should support named
arguments for functions. Again it would have helped if the various posts had
an appropriate  Subject:  line to reflect what the post is about instead of
keeping the original  Subject:  of the thread.

-- 
Something to offend the entire family
  https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4476203/
  "Dead or alive"

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Thread

Re: bart again (UCX64) candycane@f172.n1.z21.fsxnet (candycane) - 2023-09-06 19:53 +1300
  Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-06 18:52 -0700
    Re: bart again (UCX64) Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> - 2023-09-07 03:27 +0100
    Re: bart again (UCX64) candycane@f172.n1.z21.fsxnet (candycane) - 2023-09-07 08:08 +1300
      Re: bart again (UCX64) David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-09-07 16:00 +0200
        Re: bart again (UCX64) Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2023-09-07 15:08 +0100
        Re: bart again (UCX64) candy <no@thanks.com> - 2023-09-08 02:09 +0000
          Re: bart again (UCX64) James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2023-09-08 00:12 -0400
            Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-07 21:55 -0700
              Re: bart again (UCX64) candy <no@thanks.com> - 2023-09-08 05:33 +0000
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-07 23:04 -0700
                Re: bart again (UCX64) David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-09-08 09:46 +0200
              Re: bart again (UCX64) Kaz Kylheku <864-117-4973@kylheku.com> - 2023-09-08 07:17 +0000
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 02:42 -0700
                Re: bart again (UCX64) candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-08 06:55 -0500
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 11:40 -0700
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 20:17 +0100
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 12:38 -0700
                Re: bart again (UCX64) Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 21:11 +0100
                Re: bart again (UCX64) candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-08 18:16 -0500
                Re: bart again (UCX64) James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2023-09-09 01:17 -0400
                Re: bart again (UCX64) candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 15:52 -0500
              Re: bart again (UCX64) James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2023-09-09 01:16 -0400
            Re: bart again (UCX64) Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 07:09 +0100
              Re: bart again (UCX64) James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2023-09-09 01:17 -0400
            Recent spam on  comp.lang.c (was Re: bart again (UCX64)) Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2023-09-08 12:22 +0000
              Re: Recent spam on  comp.lang.c (was Re: bart again (UCX64)) Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2023-09-08 13:32 +0000
              How to change the Subject of a Usenet article (Was: Re: Recent spam on  comp.lang.c) snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) - 2023-09-08 15:50 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article (Was: Re: Recent spam on comp.lang.c) candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-08 18:27 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) - 2023-09-09 09:57 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 15:54 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2023-09-09 22:08 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 16:18 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2023-09-09 22:57 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 17:14 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2023-09-09 23:36 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 17:38 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2023-09-09 21:28 +0000
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> - 2023-09-09 16:29 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article rdh <rdh@tilde.institute> - 2023-09-11 11:24 -0500
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article (Was: Re: Recent spam on  comp.lang.c) Kaz Kylheku <864-117-4973@kylheku.com> - 2023-09-09 03:16 +0000
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) - 2023-09-09 09:57 +0100
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article Kaz Kylheku <864-117-4973@kylheku.com> - 2023-09-09 15:10 +0000
                Re: How to change the Subject of a Usenet article snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) - 2023-09-09 16:26 +0100
            Re: bart again (UCX64) scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2023-09-08 14:47 +0000

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