Aug 05
Morons of the year
There’s nothing worse than idiotic, arrogant people with power. Therefore, there’s nothing worse than idiotic, arrogant UNIX geeks, since on the ‘Net they’re the ones with all the power.
The guys over at Something Awful have been trying to bring some attention to a little problem they’re having - they are changing backbone providers, something that could potentially cost them a metric fuckload of money, because of the ignorant fucktards at spews.org.
Spews.org is a blacklisting organization in the same vein as MAPS, with all the problems thereof. They love to say “We don’t block anyone!” Which is technically true, but then again, drug dealers can say “We dont kill anyone!” even though their products do.
Basically, blacklisting organizations attempt to filter spam by blocking large chunks of the ‘Net wholesale, and if your ISP or backbone provider just happens to be in that chunk, too bad, lights out. Sounds like a good idea, but in practice these organizations do as much damage as the spammers ever do, shutting down small sites and businesses left and right. What’s worse, organizations like Spews have no real organizational structure, their FAQ itself says Spews cannot be contacted, that it is just a list. So, if you’re losing millions of dollars, you have to track down these fuckwads that have chosen to hide behind the curtain before you can really do anything to them.
Where am I going with this? Well, spam is a huge problem. But organizations like SPEWS are no better than the RIAA or MPAA. They are private organizations, that have no power other than that which ill-informed sysadmins give them. Spews is worse than many others, because they stand tall in their anonymity, bullying silently from the cover of shadows. From under cover of darkness they issue blocks, basically acting as an enforcement arm, with no checks and balances to make sure that their blocks are motivated by actual problems and not by politics. And like all private enforcement agencies, the end user or small business owner is left with no possible remedy when they find their business is now cut off from the world.
The eternal problem with private enforcement agencies is this: since they are not a public service, they have no one to answer to. They can block anyone for any reason, and never have to tell anybody why they did it. They can cost companies millions or shut them down altogether, and never have to face any kind of punishment. This problem is in no way exclusive to SPEWS; it is the problem inherent in all forms of private enforcement, and that’s why private enforcement is stupid.
Anyway, the point of all of this is simple: if you’re a sysadmin, stop using SPEWS. Their blocklists are so unbelievably wide they shut off real people who hate spam too, and they hurt real businesses and real people. They deserve a little bit of their own medicine.