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Subject: 
From-line registration?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Sun, 18 Oct 1998 13:52:00 GMT
Viewed: 
1519 times
  
Some people seem to think it is cute to put garbage or ridiculous things
into their "From:" lines (in place of their names and/or e-mail addresses).

My gut instinct says that as more and more (and younger and younger) people
discover this resource, these forms of abuse are likely to increase rather
than decrease.

The X-Real-Life-Name header is nice, and it certainly helps a lot in terms
of identities, but it doesn't prevent stunts like this:

   From: "¹qªi¯º¦~" <no-one@wants.spam.com>

or this:

   From: "Ickna (Ickna of doom, Ickna of the future, Mega super duper ultra
      power cyborg Ickna ranger trooper man guy dude)" <ickna@nospamaol.com>

I wonder if it would be best to require "From:"-line registration via a web
page prior to accepting posts from someone.


Here is my proposal:

1.  New users go to a web page (similar to the current Setup page) and
    enter the following information into a form:

       - real-life name
       - nickname/pseudonym
       - real e-mail address
       - spamblock e-mail address
       - organization
       - location

2.  The server stores this information a database of identities which are
    pending approval.

3.  Each submission is reviewed (typically within 24 hours) and either
    approved or rejected.  An e-mail is sent after the review has been
    made.

4.  If approved, then from that point forward, the newsserver accepts posts
    with "From:" lines matching

       "n" <e>
       n <e>
       e (n)

    where 'n' is either the real-life name or the nickname, and 'e' is
    either the real e-mail address or the spamblock e-mail address.  The
    X-Real-Life-Name header is still added automatically as before.

5.  The newsserver rejects all "From:" lines that it does not recognize.


It is expected that 99% or more of submissions would be accepted.  If
someone is rejected and they don't like it, well...they can go complain in
RTL or something and see if other people think it was unfair.

--Todd



Message has 4 Replies:
  Re: From-line registration?
 
Yes, wonderful idea. I thought the "ickna" thing was a bit overdone, and definitely baiting you, (not that I haven't, mind you....). I'm sure that there are limits to patience, even yours. I hope this feature is completed soon, might save you some (...) (26 years ago, 18-Oct-98, to lugnet.admin.general)
  Re: From-line registration?
 
(...) I think this is a good idea. I've snipped the proposal itself but it seems well thought out. This silliness is an unfortunate and unavoidable consequence of "getting a jump" and going public early, before the full system is implemented, as it (...) (26 years ago, 18-Oct-98, to lugnet.admin.general)
  Re: From-line registration?
 
I'm sorry if I made you mad about that, I fixed it now. Nick (26 years ago, 18-Oct-98, to lugnet.admin.general)
  Re: From-line registration?
 
Be sure to allow someone to have SEVERAL email addresses registered. Sometimes you don't have a lot of control of your From address and it can change depending on the machine setup (for some reason I have no clue, my email sometimes comes as from (...) (26 years ago, 19-Oct-98, to lugnet.admin.general)  

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