Re: what if the message-ID generator generates a dirty word?

From: Barry Margolin (barmar@genuity.net)
Date: 01/22/02 

From: Barry Margolin <barmar@genuity.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 21:57:11 GMT

In article <m3u1teyv0k.fsf@peorth.gweep.net>,
Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> wrote:
>* Barry Margolin <barmar@genuity.net> on Tue, 22 Jan 2002
>| The problem is that some ISPs have automatic filters that block messages
>| with dirty words, for the purpose of "protecting" children from porno spam,
>| online pedophiles, etc. The supposition is that it doesn't exempt header
>| fields that contain message-IDs, so if a rude word is generated there it
>| may cause the message to fail.
>
>Big deal. One message out of umpteen bazillion bounces because of a badly
>written filter. I'll start to worry when Sol goes nova.

I think the gist of the original question was how likely this is to
happen. If it's just one out of a bazillion, it's probably no big deal.
But what if it's not so unlikely?

As some have pointed out, due to the way GNUS generates its message-IDs,
some parts of it are likely to be constant for a particular user, or during
a particular stretch of time due to the encoding of the date/time. So once
it latches onto a bad word, it may keep generating that word for a while. 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.

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