Spam-Weary Users Threaten to Nix UUNet Traffic
by Jackie Poole, InfoWorld Electric
August 5, 1997
By issuing a "Usenet death penalty" (UDP) on UUNet, the administrators say all traffic originating from UUNet will be canceled until the ISP shows a substantial improvement in reducing the amount of spam coming through its service. Spam is loosely defined as mass delivery of unsolicited e-mail messages, many of them for commercial purposes, though its origins are in Usenet postings.
UUNet is being targeted for boycott because spammers are now flocking to UUNet, say the administrators.
UUNet officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
As spamming has become more prevalent, reducing productivity and eating up system resources, administrators have called on several ISPs, including UUNet, to try to reduce the spam and keep their e-mail lists from appearing on Web-based bulletin boards.
One administrator appears determined to get relief. He is not yet issuing UDP cancels but is now refusing UUNet originated posts.
Another Usenet administrator from San Diego said the amount of unsolicited advertising and spam emanating from UUNet's feed to the newsgroups has skyrocketed in recent weeks, to the point where some organizations are canceling as many as 80,000 unwanted messages per day.
"Virtually every ISP has a rule against spamming on Usenet, but despite our many complaints to UUNet, they have done nothing," said Howard Knight, a Usenet user based in San Diego.
In Knight's estimation, the Usenet death penalty, in which organizations voluntarily will configure their news servers to ignore any incoming messages from UUNet, is a last-ditch measure.
"This isn't a vigilante thing," Knight said. "What we'd like is to see is [UUNet] clean up their act."
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