Grex is in something of a rut where we don't want to stop providing
e-mail services to users but also want to protect ourselves from spam
and be a good internet neighbor by not providing tools to spammers. So,
let's talk about Grex's current setup and capability.

8 responses total.

The title of this item is deceptive.

The title of this item is what the author hopes the responses will
create. In order to solve this problem, we need to understand what we have.

Let's begin with our MTA. It looks like we're using postfix. I've always
preferred to use Qmail mainly because it stores email spools in the
users' home directories. But I also always like how modular it was,
which made it easy to add spam filtering and (in my case) logging.

We are using postfix as of today; prior to that, it was exim, which didn't
do a very good job.

I'd discourage discussion of particular MTAs.  Most these days are
configurable enough that any spam-filtering method that works with one
will work with another.  Discussions of the relative merits of different
MTAs tend to quickly devolve into religious arguments. (Especially when
qmail is involved. ;) )

It seems mail is not available at all, at least for new people, probably
because the resolver does not work.  I cannot send mail even to local help.
The only way to communicate with anybody is this conferencing system.  I do
not say it is wrong, only the Grex menu shows items, like mail and talk, that
do not work at all.

And the reason is the directory /suid/people is not readable for newpeople.
Is it intentional?

Yes, it is intentional.  As you will see in the Message Of The Day (MOTD) when
you log in, mail has been shut off while we make some changes in the code to
stop vandalism.

The correct address to send email to is also listed there (help@grex.org).

The good news is that the community passed a resolution a few weeks ago that
allows us to start promoting some new accounts to group that has mail access.
That software is being tested and should be operational in the next few days,
depending on staff availability.  

The MOTD sends me to oldcoop #304 and #306.  This is really too much too read,
there should be something more concise.  I have read it all anyway; it does
not explain why new users cannot mail help or even talk to it.
And please take into account that these actions are being advertised on the
main menu; and they mysteriously fail afterwards, and the new user must be
some f*ing Sherlock Holmes to figure out what is going on.
The same applies to Grex internal home page that is available at Lynx.  It
goes out to www.cyberspace.org, an address Lynx cannot access, even though
it is the same host as grex.cyberspace.org which is available because it has
an entry in /etc/hosts.
Here the description of the problems ends.  The following measures can be
implemented in no time at all to give new people a hint about what is really
going on:
1. Either remove the unsupported commands from the main menu,
2. Or replace them with shell scripts that tell new people to go to hell.
Besides, making it impossible to send e-mail to help or to webmaster cuts the
latter off information that could actually be useful.
Dixi.

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