[BC] Administrivia - Comment and Comcast

[Barry Mishkind]

It is almost like the cliche: a perfect storm.

1. Many of us are busy getting ready for NAB.

2. A topic which draws a lot of comments pops up (Imus issue).

3. Some major ISPs get "nailed" on some spam lists.

I got some self-righteously indignant email this morning, suggesting 
that I was censoring posts. While it is true that some topics will 
get shunted to the Alternate Frequency if the rhetoric gets too 
heated, I rarely stop individual posts. Much more often, they are 
held up by the list mail server, caught by some filters, such as the 
spam filters.

We don't make the spam lists. There are several organizations on the 
web that so. Some are commercial, some are not. The mail server uses 
a mix of them to reduce the flood of spam that hits every day. I am 
told by Chris that it is a moving target that takes a lot of time and 
effort to maintain, but it is the best they can do with an Internet 
obsessed with preventing positive identification of email sources.

Today, Comcast is on the list.  I noticed last night Cox.net was on 
the list, too.   Many major ISPs get on the list from time to time 
when someone's computer gets infected and becomes a 'bot for some 
criminal, most likely on another continent. Most ISPs find a fix the 
problem as soon as possible. Cox tries to throw the blame on the 
complaining user. I was told to check my email reader, my OS, etc, 
when the issue was Cox being on a spam list.  You will almost never 
have a big ISP admit there is a problem. I can only guess that AOL 
often escapes the lists because they are so big that the list keepers 
couldn't keep up with the problems from AOL users.

The proximate issue is the pre-pending of "{Spam?} to the Subject 
lines of some posts, those coming from ISPs on the filter lists. 
Added to the normal load of spam messages that get past the filters, 
I usually find almost an hour's worth of work in the morning, just to 
clear the "admin basket."

Unfortunately, I may not have an hour a day next week to deal with 
all this. If a post is delayed, there are a number of reasons that 
could explain it. However, I know that most of you have been and are 
understanding of what is going on. I thank you for that.

One last thing ... on this Imus issue:  There is no reason to use 
inflammatory rhetoric and personal attacks to make a point. That 
plays into the very issue that created the problem this week. 
Denigrating or shouting down someone you do not like is mob rule. 
Being rude and crude back to a rude and crude person does not advance 
discussion or reasoning, it merely is a tit for tat attack - and has 
no place on this list. Even if you feel strongly, why not extent 
basic courtesy to your fellow broadcast professionals and stay out of the mud?

Again, thanks to all who understand and share their thoughts with us.

barry