spambag.org - FAQ

Table of Contents

• Who are you?
  
  
• What is spambag.org?
  
  
• Why?
  
  
• I am a network admin. We don't allow spamming/mailbombing/whatnot on our network. spambag.org listed our upstream provider's network, which includes our own netblocks. How can we get our netblocks delisted?
  
  
• I wasn't sending you mail, I was sending mail to someone else and it was blocked because my IP address is listed by spambag.org!
  
  
• You are punishing many innocent people for the misdeeds of the few!
  
  
• Who the hell appointed you to be the net.police?
  
  
• I have a First Ammendment right to send E-mail!
  
  
• I can't mail you, you fascist censor, because you've blocked my network from sending you mail. How do you expect anyone to be able to contact you to discuss their spambag.org listing?
  
  

Q: Who are you?

A: I'm an intelligence test. Let me tell you a quick story. There's a Usenet newsgroup called alt.2600. Not long after the newsgroup's creation, it was quickly overrun with noise and completely content-free matter. A new newsgroup, alt.hackers, was created to remedy the situation. The newsgroup was marked as a moderated group, but with a non-existent moderation mailbox address. To post to alt.hackers you had to know how to post self-moderated messages. This is a rather simple matter, but it's beyond the abilities of the clue-free newbie hoardes that destroyed alt.2600, and this little trick worked wonders to filter out all the clueless me-too newbie traffic from the newsgroup. So that's my answer: I'm an intelligence test.

Q: What is spambag.org?

A: It's a list of IP address netblocks I don't want to receive mail from, or I don't want to access my web sites.

Q: Why?

A: Because. This network and servers is my private property, and I do whatever I want with them. Generally speaking: repeatedly spamming, mailbombing, port-scanning, or other kinds of anti-social behavior will be sufficient reason for me to block a given network.

Q: I am a network admin. We don't allow spamming/mailbombing/whatnot on our network. spambag.org listed our Internet provider's network, which includes our own netblocks. How can we get our netblocks delisted?

A: Talk to your Internet provider. They are the ones who are listed, not you. They need to fix their problem, not you. The delisting requirements can be found at http://www.spambag.org/listing.html#delisting. If you ask to be exempted, or whitelisted, you will not receive any reply, except a pointer to this FAQ entry. If an exemption is granted once, it will open the floodgates to similar requests from every customer of the listed Internet provider. This simply doesn't scale. Instead of asking for an exemption or whitelisting, spend the same amount of time asking your Internet provider to fix their problem. This may be unfair. You may have a clean, spotless reputation. It doesn't matter. When an Internet provider refuses to respond appropriately to my complaints, they're going to be eligible to be listed by spambag.org no matter who their other customers are..

Q: I wasn't sending you mail, I was sending mail to someone else and it was blocked because my IP address is listed by spambag.org!

A: So why are you telling me that? Someone obviously copied spambag.org list, and is using my list for their own purposes. spambag.org is a publicly available list. In case you didn't know: the web is a completely open medium (despite Microsoft's best efforts). You can access anyone web site, unless you are explicitly blocked from accessing it. Anyone is free to copy spambag.org's list for their own use. If you have a problem because someone else is using spambag.org's list, go talk to them. I have no control over anyone else, just my own network.

Q: You are punishing many innocent people for the misdeeds of the few!

A: Nobody has a civil right to E-mail me anytime they want. If someone ignores my polite requests to stop spamming or attacking my servers, I'll manually block their network from accessing mine's. It's a two way street. If you are negatively impacted because I blocked your network because your Internet provider failed to respond to my complaints, go complain to your network provider.

Q: Who the hell appointed you to be the net.police?

A: I did. This is my private network and servers. I have absolute authority to set these kinds of policies on my own network.

Q: I have a First Ammendment right to send E-mail!

A: No you don't, not on my network. Go and read what the Bill Of Rights actually says. It says that the US Congress is prevented from passing any laws that abridge one's freedom of speech, or other civil rights. I am not an agency of the US Congress, so I have no First Ammendment obligations to anyone else.

Q: I can't mail you, you fascist censor, because you've blocked my network from sending you mail. How do you expect anyone to be able to contact you to discuss their spambag.org listing?

A: I don't. That's the whole point of blocking mail - so that the listed netblocks can't send mail to me. As the contact page says: post to a Usenet newsgroup or a mailing list. I'll be happy to discuss things in the open. Yes, yes, I know that you are reading www.spambag.org. This web site is the only exception in my block list, as far as mail and web access is concerned. Since I do believe that everyone is entitled to an explanation (although nobody is required or entitled to agree with it), web access to www.spambag.org is not blocked.