POINTER: ALL THESE NET-ABUSE GROUPS! WHICH ONE SHOULD I USE?

[Russ Allbery]

Last-modified: 2003-10-04 (revision 1.14)
Posted-by: postfaq 1.15 (Perl 5.8.8)
Archive-name: net-abuse-faq/newsgroups
URL: http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/nana-groups.html
Original-author: Fluffy <***@usa.net>
Posting-frequency: weekly

We have a plentiful selection of newsgroups about network abuse and
related issues, but what is the best one to use? Here are excerpts from
the newsgroups' charters, with emphasis added to help make things clear.
Please refer to the full charters, URLs included here when available, if
you would like more detail.

If you want to learn more about network abuse -- what it is, what can be
done about it and just what all those acronyms mean -- Tim Skirvin has
pointers to more sources of information at:

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/>

Thank you for following these recommendations. It will make these
newsgroups more useful for all involved.

Network Abuse Newsgroups:

news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting (moderated)
"News.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting is a newsgroup devoted to
discussion of subjects related to the USE, ADMINISTRATION, AND EFFECTS
OF BLOCKLISTS in ameliorating the problem of unsolicited bulk email
and other unwanted or abusive network traffic. Any topic which is
especially of interest to those maintaining, using, or affected by
blocklists is welcome in this group."

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanab2.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins (moderated)
"News.admin.net-abuse.bulletins is a moderated forum for BULLETINS OF
ACTION TAKEN AGAINST NET ABUSE. Appropriate subjects include
cancellation notices (EMP/ECP, spew, binary, and others), status
reports from individual systems concerning action taken against
abusers, results of tracking campaigns, "rogue site" declarations, and
the like." You brought down a spammer? This is the place to report
it.

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanab.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.sightings (robomoderated)
"News.admin.net-abuse.sightings is a forum for REPORTS OF SIGHTINGS OF
NET ABUSE. It is a robomoderated forum, allowing only properly
formatted posts. Followups are required to be set strictly out of the
group and into the appropriate group in the news.admin.net-abuse.*
hierachy."

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanas.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.policy (robomoderated)
"News.admin.net-abuse.policy is a moderated forum for DISCUSSION OF
POLICY and site-management issues related to net abuse. Possible
topics include Acceptable Use Policies, what actions should be taken
against abusers, discussion of third-party cancel messages, possible
actions against abusive sites such as rogue site declarations,
discussion of what is and is not net abuse, and so forth."
Crossposting is not allowed here, and the subject must contain some
sort of topic tag.

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanap.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.email
"News.admin.net-abuse.email is a forum for DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE
ABUSES OF E-MAIL. Possible topics include mailbombing,
denial-of-service attacks, "listserv bombs", unsolicited and/or
unwanted mail, email address lists, mailing list abuse, large-scale
mailings in general, chain letters, "email viruses" such as Good
Times, filtering software such as procmail, and so forth. Flames and
other personal attacks received through email are not on-topic, unless
they are related to another form of abuse." Please DO NOT post
reports and sightings here.

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanae.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
"News.admin.net-abuse.usenet is a forum for DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE
ABUSES OF USENET (as defined in news.announce.newusers). Possible
topics include spamming or Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP), Excessive
Cross-Posting (ECP), Usenet chain letters such as MAKE.MONEY.FAST,
forged or third-party cancellations, broken Usenet gateways, forgery
of another user, forged approvals in moderated groups, massively
crossposted "flametrolls", abuse of the newsgroup creation system,
general purpose netiquette, and so forth." Please DO NOT post reports
and sightings here.

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanau.html>

news.admin.net-abuse.misc
"News.admin.net-abuse.misc is a forum for DISCUSSION of possible net
abuse NOT COVERED BY THE REST OF THE NEWS.ADMIN.NET-ABUSE.* HIERARCHY.
Possible topics include ping-storming, site aliasing, denial of
service attacks, and anything else that DOES NOT FIT INTO THE OTHER
FORUMS in the news.admin.net-abuse.* hierarchy." Please DO NOT post
reports and sightings here.

<http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/charter/nanam.html>

Related Newsgroups:

alt.spam
A less widely used newsgroup, this newsgroup can also be somewhat more
friendly, or at least less confrontational, and is at least lower
traffic. Some posters may find it an easier place to have a
conversation about what to do about spam than the network abuse
newsgroups.

news.admin.censorship
This is a forum for discussion of all aspects of censorship and free
speech issues relating to news administration/Usenet from all sources,
specifically including the government, system and news adminstrators
and other users. This newsgroup is intended for discussing censorship
issues directly related to netnews, although more general censorship
topics do tend to appear.

misc.legal.computing
This group is for the discussion of legal aspects of computers, or
places where computers or computer users bump into the law, such as
electronic communications privacy laws; anti-trust; monopolies;
license agreements; look and feel copyrights; Secret Service; BBS
raids; and anything else remotely related.

[Russ Allbery]

se quisque vereatur.58

Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes deos.59

Nihil turpius quam cognitioni assertionem praecurrere.60

Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire quid nesciam.61

Melius non incipient.62

365. Thought.--All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is,
therefore, by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have
strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more
ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects!

But what is this thought? How foolish it is!

366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent
that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise
of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the
creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not
reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it
incapable of good judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth,
chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that
powerful intellect

[Russ Allbery]

being able to do so,
it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death.

170. Diversion.--If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was
diverted, like the Saints and God. Yes; but is it not to be happy to have a
faculty of being amused by diversion? No; for that comes from elsewhere and
from without, and thus is dependent, and therefore subject to be disturbed
by a thousand accidents, which bring inevitable griefs.

171. Misery.--The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is
diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this
which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes
us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in a state of
weariness, and this weariness would spur us to seek a more solid means of
escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to
death.

172. We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as
too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the
past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in
the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs
to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and
thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally
painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and, if
it be delig