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The Imminent Demise of SORBS
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.
Whoever modded this as "Troll" is playing slashdot censor.
We probably mostly agree on everything. I was really just talking about this issue in the abstract ... in the originally referenced song the author is addressing everyone who might listen instead of an individual. I'd never try to steamroll over anybody by insisting on using their "old" gender pronouns in conversation when they'd rather be seen differently; it doesn't hurt anybody else if they want to be called "she" instead of "he," and saying something like "heshe" every time would just be passive-aggressive and plain rude. Your point that the most respectful thing is to call someone what they want to be called is excellent.