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(gnus)NoCeM

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NoCeM
=====

   "Spamming" is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
Spamming is bad.  Spamming is evil.

   Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various
anti-spamming agencies.  These agencies usually also send out "NoCeM"
messages.  NoCeM is pronounced "no see-'em", and means what the name
implies--these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
away.

   What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled
anyway?  Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just
honor cancels from a select few people.  Then you may wish to make use
of the NoCeM messages, which are distributed in the `alt.nocem.misc'
newsgroup.

   Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
this will make spam disappear.

   There are some variables to customize, of course:

`gnus-use-nocem'
     Set this variable to `t' to set the ball rolling.  It is `nil' by
     default.

`gnus-nocem-groups'
     Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list.  The
     default is `("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
     "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")'.

`gnus-nocem-issuers'
     There are many people issuing NoCeM messages.  This list says what
     people you want to listen to.  The default is `("Automoose-1"
     "clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
     "hweede@snafu.de")'; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.

     Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
     `http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html'.

     You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people--just
     the ones you want to listen to.  You also don't have to accept all
     NoCeM messages from the people you like.  Each NoCeM message has a
     "type" header that gives the message a (more or less, usually
     less) rigorous definition.  Common types are `spam', `spew', `mmf',
     `binary', and `troll'.  To specify this, you have to use `(ISSUER
     CONDITIONS ...)' elements in the list.  Each condition is either a
     string (which is a regexp that matches types you want to use) or a
     list on the form `(not STRING)', where STRING is a regexp that
     matches types you don't want to use.

     For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis
     except his `troll' messages, you'd say:

          ("clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))

     On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his `spam' and
     `spew' messages, you'd say:

          ("clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")

     The specs are applied left-to-right.

`gnus-nocem-verifyer'
     This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is
     who she says she is.  The default is `mc-verify', which is a
     Mailcrypt function.  If this is too slow and you don't care for
     verification (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable
     to `nil'.

     If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned
     messages not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do
     something like:

          (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
          
          (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
            (not (eq 'forged
                     (ignore-errors
                       (if (mc-verify)
                           t
                         'forged)))))

     This might be dangerous, though.

`gnus-nocem-directory'
     This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files.  The default
     is `~/News/NoCeM/'.

`gnus-nocem-expiry-wait'
     The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the
     cache.  The default is 15.  If you make it shorter Gnus will be
     faster, but you might then see old spam.

`gnus-nocem-check-from'
     Non-`nil' means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
     Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author
     matches a valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective
     about the issuers.

`gnus-nocem-check-article-limit'
     If non-`nil', the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
     group.  NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.

   Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog.  If you have many
living (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process
will grow big.  If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most)
of your unsubscribed groups (Note: Subscription Commands).