SPAM filter policies on AzTeC: New 7/9/03
==================================

AzTeC users should see a sharp drop of SPAM they receive in their
AzTeC mailbox. While this will be a welcome enhancement of our
services, people need to know how the system works and what it
means to them personally, so here is a short list to this purpose:

1. Full-scale filtering (open-relay, open-proxy, bldns) is effective
as of today. This is in addition to what we had before: it is based
on dynamically maintained databases + my own "do not call list" +
text-string based filters (subject, etc). It should be very good,
based on my personal experience.

2. I am waiting to hear on a request for free subscription from a
paid service (in addition to all of the above) within the next few
days. Please, donate to AzTeC so in the future we can afford a few
bucks for some things that cannot be achieved for free. AzTeC needs
your support now, more than ever.

3. OPT-OUT policy: I've been thinking about this for a long time,
delaying spam filtering until we clarify the issue. Finally, heavy
system load prompted the above action and the choice of OPT-OUT vs.
OPT-IN. In addition, all this time I have not heard more than a
couple of users requesting that they be spammed. STILL: if you
would like to OPT OUT (receive all spam) - Email 'helpdesk' and
your Email will NOT be filtered.

3a. Partial exceptions: some heavy-duty spam domains still have a
few legitimate users, and one of these may be your friend (example
China Telecom). If so, I can white-list an individual name, or a
block of IPs as needed, to accommodate the situation. This should
be a very, very rare phenomenon.

4. SPAM reporting: we will have an address set up ONLY for POP3
users and Webmail users (when it is available). Repeat: DO NOT
FWD spam from your AzTeC text-mailbox: it is useless for SPAM
blocking (no full headers). As always, do NOT reply to SPAM and
practice safe SPAM-proof behavior online.

5. I will make personal filters available to each user when the
Web interface is operational, to further tailor your preferences.
SPAM reporting may be posted on the Web as well (dumped, deleted,
rejected SPAM list) for the curious ones. Rate seems ~1/3sec :)

6. Please read this carefully - every effort made to assure no
false positives. Mail from SPAM domains will be rejected (not
dumped) so, in the UNLIKELY case it was valid, the sender will
know enough to re-send it and take measures to get a decent ISP.

Please call our helpline or Email 'helpdesk' with any questions.
Enjoy!

Cheers, Ivan