nanog mailing list archives

Re: Vendors spamming NANOG attendees


From: Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2017 15:31:46 +0000

Rodney,

You said "I see something every couple of months that I can track back to NANOG, or ARIN."

I would hardly call this a flood. But my point is that most people posting to NANOG, being technical people, respond to 
notifications that they are spamming. Your example email illustrates this perfectly. Sometimes they're ignorant and 
don't realize they're spamming. If they're persistent they get removed from the list (I don't think that has had to 
happen for several years).

The remaining spammers are easily caught by filters, as you can plainly see.

I don't see your need for urgency, and you still haven't said what you propose as a better arrangement. I made my 
suggestion. What's yours?

 -mel 

On Jun 13, 2017, at 8:19 AM, Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com> wrote:


On Jun 13, 2017, at 9:02 AM, Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org> wrote:

Rodney,

What do you suggest? Shoot them at Dawn? :-) 

The standard warning and education has always been adequate in the past. We don't have a runaway spamming problem on 
the list.

What standard warning and education?

We have filters to stop spam making it to the list.

But there is definitely a spamming problem of sorts amongst vendors, to subscriber addresses. 

I see something every couple of months that I can track back to NANOG, or ARIN.

What I *know* is that if you open the door, and ignore it with vendors on NANOG, the list members will end up having 
a problem. If you want to know why I consider myself an expert, feel free to ask me offline about what the attitude 
that those of us who ran "the backbone" in 1994 had - and how that worked out.

On the other hand, as a senior citizen, at the end of my tech days, with enable grudgingly given up, I guess I could 
turn away and say "not my problem, really".

YMMV.

-mel beckman

On Jun 13, 2017, at 6:00 AM, Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com> wrote:

It seems that more than just a few of us were spammed by Glenn Stern (gstern () calient net), an employee of 
Calient following NANOG 70.

The spammer had the balls to say, in his email:


We do not know each other. I'm leveraging the attendee list for NANOG to reach out and raise awareness of the 
value of OCS (Optical Circuit Switching) in the data center and in particular, the Carrier Neutral Hotel where 
we've been active with next generation MeetMeRoom discussions.

He does not show as an attendee at NANOG, but another executive, David Altstaetter, daltstaetter () calient net did 
register, and may have even shown up. Hopefully those of you who have traditional community attitudes will show 
your reaction via your pocketbooks.

Maybe its time for the NANOG board and staff to step in, and develop some teeth to use in cases like these? Unless 
the majority of you members are cool with unfettered spamming of member and attendee lists. In which case, have at 
it!

Rodney



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