Hi Robert and others

I don't think Yahoo at the moment has a probationary period for membership -
it's either open or moderated. Because Yahoo groups cannot be configured the
way other message board systems can - eg http://www.phpbb.com - I'd hold out
little hope for this happening. My view is that Yahoo groups is a roundabout
way of harvesting email addresses for spam outfits, nothing more.

It's important to note that spamming isn't done by an individual but rather a
mass mailing server (profit is the motive here) that will hit all the Groups
that have open membership via their "....subscribe@yahoogroups.com" email
address, once the spam outfit gets subscribed, the mass mail server sends spam
to the "groupname@yahoogroups.com" email.
This is why there would is very little chance of catching an individual doing
the spam.

How do I combat spam? - currently I block all email from those who have
@... addresses, I've also blocked images, cookies and popups sourced
from all yahoo subdomains using the Mozilla 1.2.1 web browser (can also use
Opera for this).
Here are some links to help out :
www.mozilla.org/releases/
www.opera.com

openwebmail.org/openwebmail/ is a great webmail program if you have your own
web server running.

Hope this helps all of you out there, certainly helps me.. I don't see any spam.

Cheers
James

> Bill,
> How about a probationary period for new members? It shouldn't take
> more than a post or two from a new member before it's evident his or
> her interest lies in celestial or "heavenly" bodies.
>
> I think, but I'm not sure, that's it's possible to have multiple
> moderators so if the probationary mode becomes burdensome. (I'll
> volunteer, if need be.)
>
> On another note, I get so much spam now, that it's second nature to
> hit the delete key.
>
> RB