Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics

[Roger Safian <r-safian () NORTHWESTERN EDU>]

At 08:55 AM 2/13/2007, Ken Connelly put fingers to keyboard and wrote:
> Roger Safian wrote:
> > At 06:51 PM 2/12/2007, Tim Lane put fingers to keyboard and wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I would be interested in comparing our spam stats with other institutions.
> We are currently sent around around 450 000 emails per day, of which 98-99% are
> spam leaving around 5000 valid email messages passed through.  This is
> transparent to our uses who only receive valid email.
> > > Are other institution's spam levels this high?  I would be very interested in
> hearing stats as I thought global rates were only around 90-95%.
> > >
> >
> > Your levels on spam seem high to me.  I'd suggest that you change your public
> > directory to not include email address in plain text.  You can obfuscate them,
> > see our directory for an example.
> ooh, that's...  interesting.  How long have you been doing that and do
> you get complaints about it?  Anyone else doing similar things?

We switched for a system where we had placed artificial speed bumps on
off campus directory lookups to the obfuscation, about a year ago.  We
had no complaints.  We did spend a very long time, working on it though,
trying various obfuscation techniques, discussing goals.  Everyone had a
say, and I think that's one of the reasons the project was successful.

BTW - We stole the idea, from somebody...I forget who now.  I think
it's not that uncommon a solution.



--
Roger A. Safian
r-safian () northwestern edu (email) public key available on many key servers.
(847) 491-4058   (voice)
(847) 467-6500   (Fax) "You're never too old to have a great childhood!"