[anti-abuse-wg] working in new version of 2019-04 (Validation of "abuse-mailbox")

Am 14.01.20 um 13:10 schrieb Ronald F. Guilmette:
> [...]
> So, my solution is just don't.  Let the whole planet vote on whether
> they think this provider or that provider are ***heads, and let the
> chips fall where they may.
>
> I'm not saying that even this idea would neessarily be piece-of-cake easy.
> The first problem would be working out a way to prevent the system from
> being gamed by bad actors for malicious purposes, or for positive "PR"
> purposes.  (Don't get me started about the fake positive review over on
> TripAdvisor.)  But I am not persuaded that these are in any sense
> insoluable problems.
>
>
> Regards,
> rfg
>
While this would probably paint a pretty solid picture of which network operators can be trusted and which can't,
there's another point besides your valid concern about abusers gaming the system: Whoever publishes the results of such
user ratings would most likely expose themselves to litigious lawsuits, which neither you nor me nor RIPE NCC really
wants to do.

Remember that some DSNBLs had a hard time due to this, some preferred to stay anonymous for that very reason. An
"abuser-friendliness" rating system targeting network operators who may be "RIPE NCC members in good standing" would
probably not live long, even if it published just clear facts ("this network operator does not want to receive and
handle abuse reports") because these facts might be used to block access from these networks and hurt their business.

I've been running mail systems since when "postmaster at domain.tld" was still the first point of contact you would go to
when something bad emanated from a mailserver. Then spammers operated their own domains, and you would need to address
abuse@ for the IP range. Then network operators decided to look the other way when their well-paying customers spammed,
and reporting to abuse mailbox addresses became hopeless. I just don't do that anymore. IP-level blocking of whole
network address ranges works for me. If network operators don't want to get blocked, they need to clean up their act,
with or without abuse mailbox.

Cheers,
Hans-Martin