Chris Messina wrote:
I would like to go out on a limb and propose that we coordinate an effort to create an open source anti-spam solution that can easily be ported to the various OS CRM/Blog platforms, is centrally coordinated (possibly by Drupal, but it really doesn't matter who takes it) and provides best practices and avoidance techniques for website administrators.
Aren't "bayesian filtering", "black listing" and "captcha" examples of solutions that are _already_ available in most CMS platforms? Programmatically it is nearly impossible to cooperate: we use different database abstraction layers, a different comment system, different coding standards, different permission schemes, etc, etc. What is of interest to us are algorithmic descriptions of anti-spam solutions and experience reports. However these are _intensively_ being researched by governments, academia and the industry. Their research results are often published for all to implement and use. Random example: http://spamconference.org/. In fact, Drupal's spam module and Wordpress' spam plugin exist because we have access to such information/results. Most of the time, it simply boils down to implementing published algorithms/techniques. Furthermore, Drupal's and Wordpress' modules being released under terms of the GPL, are available for others OSS projects to copy, change, improve and distribute. If other projects are interested in our anti-spam code, they can and will use it. If developers want to cooperate or learn from each other, they can and will. With or without establishing a /formal/ entity. That said, the more we can co-operate to fight spam, the better. I'm just not sure how it would work, or whether it would be successful. -- Dries Buytaert :: http://www.buytaert.net/