WARNING: I AM ABOUT TO PONTIFICATE! Many of the lists etc I'm on get spamt and that's followed by a stream of "we're getting spamt!" (either directly or scraped) agonizing, over and over. I've been involved in the spam problems since before some of you were bornt (ok I'll stop with the stupid past participles), late 90s, and the net since the 1970s. Instead of this non-stop quarter century of agonizing maybe it's high time to admit failure, that we designed a system which is subject to spam and that was a mistake, a big mistake. I know, where's the FUSSP, the proposal, so you can shoot it down? I won't do that, not here. But I do think we need, and have needed for a couple of decades, some sort of radical rethink. Times have changed, ideas which were not practical 20 years ago are perhaps possible today due to, if nothing else, cheaper, faster hardware and networks etc. I guess I'm an idealist but I also get a little sick of the endless cycle of complaining, agonizing, and assertions that everything has been tried and nothing can help which mostly amount to we like/hate email just as it is. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*