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IESG Statement on Spam Control on IETF Mailing Lists
statement-iesg-iesg-statement-on-spam-control-on-ietf-mailing-lists-20080414-00

Document Type IESG Statement
Title IESG Statement on Spam Control on IETF Mailing Lists
Published 2008-04-14
Metadata last updated 2024-02-23
State Active
Send notices to (None)
statement-iesg-iesg-statement-on-spam-control-on-ietf-mailing-lists-20080414-00

IESG Statement on Spam Control on IETF Mailing Lists

14 Apr 2008

The following principles apply to spam control on IETF mailing lists:

  • IETF mailing lists MUST provide spam control.
  • Such spam control SHOULD track accepted practices used on the Internet.
  • IETF mailing lists MUST provide a mechanism for legitimate technical participants to bypass moderation, challenge-response, or other techniques that would interfere with a prompt technical debate on the mailing list without requiring such participants to receive list traffic.
  • IETF mailing lists MUST provide a mechanism for legitimate technical participants to determine if an attempt to post was dropped as apparent spam.
  • The Internet draft editor, RFC editor, IESG secretary, IETF chair and IANA MUST be able to post to IETF mailing lists. The relevant identity information for these roles will be added to any white-list mechanism used by an IETF mailing list.
  • There MUST be a mechanism to complain that a message was inappropriately blocked.

The realization of these principles is expected to change over time. List moderators, working group chairs and area directors are expected to interpret these principles reasonably and within the context of IETF policy and philosophy.

This supercedes a previous IESG statement on this topic, dated 9 Jan 2006. That statement contains justification and implementation advice that may be helpful to anyone applying these principles.

A separate IESG statement applies to moderation of IETF mailing lists.