I think everyone is annoyed at this problem and that raises the level of frustration all around.
The problem is well known but tricky to track down.
To summarize:
- Someone has subscribed to the fedora-list using one email address.
- They have that email address automatically forwarding all their mail to another address at
uol.com.br.
-
uol.com.br has a dumb challange-based spam filter that strips out any tracking info out of its replies.
The consequence:
- Every person that emails to fedora-list wil get an echo email back from
uol.com.br's spambot
The solution:
1. everyone filters the spambot replies into the trash at their end
- an easy solution that everyone has to take part in but is permanent
2. the list administrator goes though each email address one by one
sending dummy verification emails to try and trigger the spambot and
then delete that subscriber
- a harder solution that only the list administrator has
to do but has to be repeated every time someone decides to play this
trick
3. the list administrator triggers a real verification email to cull the dead addresses
- everyone has to be involved on a regular basis to do
whatever verification is needed to prove they are not a spambot or a
dead address ... usually requires clicking on a link ... has the
potential of unintentionally booting people off the list that were not
paying attention.
4. everyone contacts the admin at
uol.com.br to try to convince them to stop doing this for known mailing lists
- problem is not everyone knows Portugese and several attempts at this have gotten no response
So solution 1. is the most convenient way to go at this point, unfortunately.
/Mike