Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 16:56:33 -0500 (EST) From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: WSFA online, WSFA email To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> (Sorry for the double posting. By default, I BCC all messages to myself. I have to remember *not* to do that when sending to the list, since my mailbox and the list's mailbox are really the same mailbox.) Elspeth Kovar wrote: > According to the February WSFA Journal (I really wish we had proper > financial reports, darn it) ... There's one in the March Journal. It looks kind of garbled in my browser, but perhaps it looks ok in Netscape or IE. Or at least in the hardcopy Journal. > Keith, I assume that you've figured that 150 MB storage and 5 GB of > transfers is sufficient? Yes. The Journals take up 59 MB, this list 14, pichist 10, the old web logs (dating back to 1998) 36, and everything else 42. That adds up to more than 150, but we don't need the old web logs or the parts of the list archives that aren't visible to users. The Journal will grow, of course, but not as quickly as you might guess. Sam's 12 page Journals actually each take about twice as much space as Don Miller's 50 page Journals will, thanks to the magic of Microsoft-generated HTML bloat. We might run short on space in two years or so, if Panix doesn't increase the quota (as they've been doing every few years as disks become cheaper), but I can get rid of PDFs such as the 3 MB (!) Capclave '01 fliers, and can run demoronizer and HTMLtidy on the Microsoft-bloated Journals. (For instance does the March issue really need 397 (!) instances of the word "MsoNormal", 792 of "style", 452 of "class", 349 of "font", 305 "span", and 259 "valign"? I've succeeded in manually HTMLing the old WSFA Journals without any instances of any of these, and I think they look just as good.) > It says that we would have 10 mailboxes and unlimited aliases. The > latter will be useful for those of us who need to be contacted > because of duties for specific conventions but prefer to not have > our personal address up on too many websites. > Capclave_Programming_04 at panix.com, for example, could be used just > for that and then go away. It's even better -- it would be Capclave_Programming_04 at wsfa.org, not at panix.com. Each WSFA member could have their own forwarder, e.g. Elspeth.Kovar at wsfa.org. And this list would at last have a at wsfa.org address instead of a at keithlynch.net address. (I'm really not all that much of an egomaniac, believe it or not. I don't need my name plastered on everything.) > I'd also like to see about setting up two WSFA mailing lists. > Currently this one is both social and handles some WSFA business but > I sympathize with those who don't want, or don't have the time for, > keeping up with the social traffic and thus don't subscribe. I could easily do that, but we barely have critical mass as it is. We recently had six days with no messages at all. And would anyone really subscribe to the business-only list who aren't willing to subscribe to this list? I doubt it. With the present volume, it's not that much effort to skip over messages one isn't interested in. > One thing to check with Judy is if we're tax exempt yet. My > recollection is that filing the paperwork was going to cost several > hundred dollars ... Are you sure we haven't already done so? From the July 18, 1986 minutes, in the August 1986 WSFA Journal: Old Business: The attorney sent Michael Walsh a letter saying that all IRS and incorporation paperwork has been filed. He is now waited for word from the IRS on our tax standing; Maryland will probably follow the Fed's example. We changed status in 1998, but I can't believe we undid our tax exempt status. Talk to John Pomeranz, who was in charge of that change. > Keith, I've looked through your article in the February WSFA Journal > as well as reading this. Is the following an accurate synopsis? > The WSFA contact address goes to Keith Lynch and to no one else. > Mail to that address is goes through your personal filters and > anything with certain words or HTML goes into the trash and won't > be seen. > You're changing things so that mail to the WSFA contact address > still goes to you but you will accept all email to that address no > matter what, without it going through your personal filters. Right, except that I already made the change. People are free to mention Nigeria, Viagra, and downlines. They're even free to send me (but not the list) HTML and attachments, though I hope they don't, as it's annoying and ugly. > You're planning to change the WSFA contact address monthly, > wsfa0403, then wsfa0404 in April, etc.. Yes, except I may have to change it more often. I got a spam sent to wsfa0403 just *seven* *hours* after I placed that address on our website. If spam gets worse, I may need to change addresses more often than I change underwear. My goal isn't zero spam. That's unrealistic. But I hope I can get less spam than legitimate email. > On the page with the address you'll have a message saying something > along the lines of, "This address changes regularly to attempt to > cut down on the amount of spam. Please bookmark the page if you > don't plan to contact us right away." I already do. > Mail sent directly to you at kfl at KeithLynch.net will only be > accepted if it's from an address that you've set things to accept > but that's just your personal email, not WSFA contact. (And you > already have more than 9,000 entries in that list.) Yes. 9771 at the moment. And anyone whose From: line contains any of those 9771 strings (e.g. "ekovar", "elspeth kovar", "kovar elspeth", or "kovar, elspeth") all case insensitive, will be accepted on *ANY* KeithLynch.net address. Including expired disposable addresses. And including any address they make up, e.g. qwerty at keithlynch.net. > Is this correct? Yes. Additionally, anyone whose subject line contains any of 829 strings will be unconditionally accepted. These strings include: 1988 issue 1989 issue 1st friday 3rd friday 43rd ave 5th friday 8th st air & space air and space akicif alexandria amtrak anaheim antholog archiv arisia arlington astronaut at a capclave at a wsfa at capclave at wsfa aussicon austerity b&n bailey's crossroadbaileys crossroad ballston balticon baltimore bandwidth barnes beltsville beltway bethesda bicycle big dig bike biking blog bloomsday blue line book fair book festival book sale border's books borders books borders' books boskone boston brentano bungalow bus stop bylaws calendar capclave '0 capclave 0 capclave 1 capclave 2 capclave 3 capclave 4 capclave 5 capclave 6 capclave again capclave appear capclave committeecapclave correctiocapclave dealer capclave detail capclave e-mail capclave email capclave event capclave fl capclave hotel capclave hour capclave huckster capclave info capclave item capclave mail capclave meeting capclave member capclave page capclave participacapclave party capclave program capclave question capclave registratcapclave room capclave was capclave web capclave will capclave won't capclave.org capitol hill cascadiacon cassini castlecon cavorite cavourite chairfan chicon chinatown chocolate city paper clarendon college park collyer brothers comic arts festiva conadian concom confrancisco constitution conterpoint conucopia convention center conventions corflu cosmonaut crystal city cycling cyclist dalton darwin datclave dc appear dc metro direction disclave discon 2 discon 3 discon ii doctor who does capclave does wsfa dr. who dragon*con dragoncon dulles eclipse evecon fairfax falls church fanac fandom fanish fannish fantasy con fantek farpoint fiawol fifth friday filk first friday flying car for capclave for wsfa friday meeting friday's meeting from capclave from mars from wsfa gaithersburg galileo gamecon gaylaxicon geekitry gemini general technic genre georgetown gilliland ginter glasgow gravit green line greenbelt greg egan greyhound gutenberg hamfest harsh mistress heinlein henson herndon honeck howard johnson howard university html e-mail html email html in e-mail html in email html in mail html mail hubble hugo hunt valley huygens hyatt hynes i, robot imaginecon in book in dc industrial revolut interaction intersection interthingy is capclave is wsfa island in the sea isn't capclave isn't wsfa ity house james hogan james hughes james p. hogan jaywalk john cramer johncon johns hopkin journal jupiter katsucon ken mccloud key bridge kramer l'enfant plaza lacon lee highway library of congreslinux loudoun lunacon magicon malice domestic marilee layman marriott mars lander mars mission mars rover mars society marscon martian maryland math problem matthew tepper mayhew mccunney mclean merrifield metro bus metro center metro rail metro station metrobus metrorail montgomery moonwalk mundane nalo hopkinson nanotech nasfic national airport near dc nesfa net wiz netwiz new book new carrollton nielsen hayden nigerian scam noreascon notsp novag olsson on mars orange line palamar turn patrick kelly pedestrian pentagon permutation city pg county philadelphia philcon picnic pioneer playful sf pollotta potomac poul anderson pratchett prince george prince william procrastinat programmer prometheus prsfs public domain quantum quilt show ramada rasff rasfw rational number readercon red line regency congress reiter relativi reston rockville rosslyn safeway salman rushdie sam konkin san francisco schild's ladder sci-fi science fiction seattle sf association sf author sf club sf con sf group sf society sf writer sfbc shady grove sheldon sheraton shevacon shore leave shoreham shuttle columbia sidewalk signing silver spring sisterspace skiffy skylab skyline inn slipstream smithsonian smof solar southcon space elevator space odyssey space station spacecraft spaceship springfield starship state of sf stellar stirling stross subway station surveyor technicon techworld third friday time machine timeline titan to capclave to dc to wsfa torcon toronto train station traincon transcend transhuman transit treadmill tv movie tv program tv show typos tyson union station usenet vertigo books vienna viking lander vintage computer fvirginia voyager w & od w&od wade walden wardman park washington wasn't capclave wasn't wsfa weaponscon white flint white listing whitelisting wiki will capclave will wsfa william gibson winterfest wmata wmod won't capclave won't wsfa world fantasy worldcon wsfa '0 wsfa 0 wsfa 20 wsfa 4 wsfa 5 wsfa 6 wsfa anniversary wsfa appear wsfa correction wsfa dealer wsfa detail wsfa e-mail wsfa email wsfa event wsfa fl wsfa hotel wsfa hour wsfa huckster wsfa info wsfa item wsfa mail wsfa meeting wsfa member wsfa page wsfa participant wsfa party wsfa program wsfa question wsfa registration wsfa room wsfa was wsfa web wsfa will wsfa won't wsfa.org wsfan yellow line zubrin and hundreds of others. They capture any subject line I've used in email or a newsgroup posting in the past few months, and any subject line in WSFA-related email to me *ever*. Additionally, messages can be acccepted due to their organization line. (That's how my own messages are accepted. My name and email address aren't on my whitelist, since too many spammers forge them!) Acceptable organization lines include any which contain any of bsfs, clave, con, fandom, fannish, fwa, hosting.com, interaction, mcfi, net wizard, netwizard, panix, prsfs, science fiction, sci-fi, scifi, sfwa, smof, wsfa, and many others. I've worked very hard to make sure that *no* legitimate email will be lost. None. > If so, I'd like to suggest an addition to the process. Set up a > permanent contact address for WSFA, perhaps WSFA at WSFA.org once we've > moved over to Panix. Then change the message on the page with the > temporary contact address to something along the lines of "This > address changes regularly to attempt to cut down on the amount of > spam. Please bookmark the page if you don't plan to contact us > right away or, if you need the permanent WSFA contact address, drop > us a note and we'll send it to you. But we'd rather you not put > that up on a website -- just use a link to this page." That's redundant, since as soon as they drop us a note, I immediately add their name and their address to the whitelist. After which *any* keithlynch.net address they have for us will work. (So will any wsfa.org address that points to me, once there are wsfa.org addresses.) One problem with sending people an address and asking them to keep it secret is that some of them won't. And others will add it to their address book, which will be harvested by the next virus to infect their computer. It will probably stay safe if given to five people. But give it to twenty, and odds are spammers will find it, and trade it among themselves. I don't want to tell anyone that an address is permanent unless I'm absolutely sure that it *is* permanent, and will *never* have to be abandoned. See you in a few hours. -- Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/ Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.