[Nottingham] Challenge-Response systems

[Cam]

Michael

> It's quite a small effort and one that spam senders don't expend: so it works. 

It seems like a good idea when it works, but there are a lot of little 
hitches that make it a bad idea IMHO.

One of the nice things about mail is, you send a mail and within a short 
time you can expect a bounce, or you have some level of confidence that 
it's been received. CR systems break that expectation.

CR systems are easily misconfigured to wreak havoc with autoresponders 
and other automated mail services. Say your bank changes their from: 
address without telling you, and their automated system ignores your CR 
request. You miss out on important email too easily.

Finally, it's just plain rude to assume that a stranger's email is spam, 
IMHO. There are plenty of things wrong with email and CR systems add to 
the complexity & problems instead of reducing them.

-Cam

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camilo at mesias.co.uk                                                 <--