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The Imminent Demise of SORBS

Posted by kdawson on from the don't-let-it-be-bought-by-a-spammer dept.

An anonymous reader lets us know about the dire straits the SORBS anti-spam blacklist finds itself in. According to a notice posted on the top page, long-time host the University of Queensland has "decided not to honor their agreement with... SORBS and terminate the hosting contract." The post, signed "Michelle Sullivan (Previously known as Matthew Sullivan)," says that the project needs either to "find alternative hosting for a 42RU rack in the Brisbane area of Queensland Australia" or to find a buyer. Offers are solicited for the assets of SORBS as an ongoing anti-spam service — it's now handling over 30 billion DNS queries per day. An update to the post says "A number of offers have already been made, we are evaluating each on their own merits." Failing a successful resolution, SORBS will cease operations on July 20, 2009 at 12 noon Brisbane time. Such a shutdown could slow or disrupt anti-spam efforts for large numbers of mail hosts worldwide.

5 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Re:*snort* by doctorcisco · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mod parent up. The death of SORBS would be a net gain in the fight against spam. Blacklisting entire ISP's who are "insufficiently responsive" only makes sense if you don't care whether email gets delivered or not.

    doc

  2. Um, is this at all credible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't know if this is subterfuge, but:

    http://www.iadl.org/sorbs/sorbs-story.html

  3. What's this then, eh? by aweraw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ROM's being charged for: http://vampire.isux.com/ROMs/

    Dubious images: http://vampire.isux.com/pics/x/

    So what's going on Matthew... I mean, Michelle?

    --
    5468652047616D65
  4. Re:Possible Alternate Hosting by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can you provide all the domains you host, so that I can get as many mail admins together to arbitrarily block your servers, and demand "donations" to unblock them?

    Thanks in advance, you worthless pile of trash.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. full disclosure by corbettw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    kdawson should've included the disclosure that SourceForge, one of Slashdot's sister companies, is a sponsor of SORBS. There's an ad on the right side of the SORBS main page touting this fact, so it's not like it should've been difficult for him to find to point out in the summary.

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.