temporary list moderation (re recent spam)

[Funknet List Admin]

Dear Funknet Subscribers,

Due to an increase in spam postings to Funknet today, I have just enabled
emergency list moderation.  What this means is, for the next several days,
any posting to Funknet will need to first be verified by the list
administrator (AKA me).  If you post a message to Funknet, I will receive
an e-mail notification, and will approve the post as soon as possible.
This may mean that your posting will take several hours to be sent out,
but for the time being I believe this is preferable to being inundated
with bogus messages.  Please note that I am not filtering or censoring
legitimate posts--I will only reject posts containing spam like the three
from earlier this afternoon.  As soon as spam activity ceases, Funknet
will return to its usual, unmoderated mode.

Several of you have written to ask whether these messages are viruses;
they are not.  Since Funknet does not allow attachments, and since the
Rice mail filters scan for viruses automatically, this list does not
distribute viruses.  Furthermore, since only list members are allowed to
post, spam from nonmembers is also blocked.  However, as appears to have
happened today, if a member's computer is infected with a virus,  or if
another computer's addressbook contains both a subscriber's address  and
the Funknet list address, spam will post to the list with the appearance
of having originated from a list member.  As always, please make sure your
antivirus software is up-to-date, so that your computer is not co-opted
into being a spam distributor.

I will post another message once the list returns to its normal,
unmoderated mode.  Meanwhile, please bear with any delays in the posting
of your legitimate messages.

--Robert Englebretson, Funknet list admin