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SORBS.NET runs a RBL service that admins foolish enough can use to block mail from supposedly corrupted or spammy servers. From time to time systems of mine are listed in that list. Usually out of rather stupid reasons: one system was listed because it ran FTP services on some high port numbers and that's defined as being taken over by spammers for the SORBS.NET admins. A recent listing just gives the reason that there are supposedly unknown trojans running on that server - yeah, sure, you don't know what it is but you define it as a trojan. Suckers.
So you think you go and check why your server is listed. You reach their site and check the database - enter the IP and send the form. You get a message that you need to register first. What the fuck? They are listing my machine, I want to know why it is listed and they require a registration?
When you click the register button, you are asked a lot of questions. And several of those are required fields. Of course you only get told this after sending the form with emtpy fields - it would be far too much work for those fools to put visible marks on required fields ...
What are those required fields? eMail, postal address, phone number (that you only get told after you send an otherwise fully filld form - no, they don't include it in their first report on required fields), name, skill level. Why the fuck do they need my address and my phone number? This is just plain silly. Filter-fascists ...
After you jump through their hoops, you can check the database (of course you need to log in after validating their registration - doing onestep-validation-and-registration would be far to complicated for those retards to do). Then you get the lousy excuse they have for listing your server.
Delisting? Yes, you can do that - but don't think it's as easy as pressing a button. No, you must do that from the machine that is listed in the RBL. Yes, of course you need to go through their poor excuse for a web interface for that, too. Yes, it sucks with Lynx - and of course we all run GUI environments on our servers, don't we?
I remember on my first encounter with this system that mail via support forms bounced because of broken mail routing. Yeah, they are a real well on incompetence. Bogon field of galactic magnitude ...
Sorry, but SORBS.NET is the most shitty implementation of a RBL service I ever found. No transparency on what they are listing and why, not easy management of delisting or listing or information gathering and a overall very luserish attitude towards the whole stuff.
So if you are one of those silly mail admins that uses SORBS.NET for mail filtering: don't try to ask me anything. I won't help you and won't jump through any more hoops just to deliver mail to your inbox. It's bad enough we have to cope with spammers and broken software - we don't need the additional burden of totally incompetent idiots running broken RBLs. If I get a bounce on a mail I send because of SORBS.NET filtering, you are out.
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