Notes to The NoCeM Registry

Spam Indexes and Thresholds

See the FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds and guidelines for definitions of the Breidbart Index (BI) and the Skirvin-Breidbart Index (SBI). We use the abbreviation 'CI' for a spam index equal to the number of substantively identical copies, irrespective of cross-posts, as used by some issuers.

Although the accepted Usenet-wide cancellation threshold for spam is BI >= 20, we list NoCeM issuers for consensus (green) deletion criteria if their threshold is at least BI >= 10, SBI >= 10 or CI >= 10. We indicate with the Criteria entry any particular spam threshold, especially when different from the accepted cancellation threshold for issuer's scope.

The above does not imply that we should be in favor of lowering the accepted Usenet-wide spam threshold. We think a threshold of 10 is okay for a hierarchy of limited size (such as nl.*). For Usenet-wide application, however, we'd rather stick to the accepted threshold of 20 (preferably SBI >= 20).

Language

We read Dutch, English, French and German in that order of proficiency (and we may make a little sense of a few more languages, but please don't count on it). We write in Dutch or English.

Providing Information

If you e-mail us information, we will give it the attention it deserves, but we reserve the right not to reply; also to publish (usually on this page) short excerpts from clarifications in e-mail by listed issuers or permissioners in reply to questions from us.

Accountability information

A good possible way to supply accountability information for individual articles is as remarks in the notice body, for example:

@@BEGIN NCM BODY
#From: Mike Doyle <a3telecom@answerme.com> 
#Subject: Question 
#Reason for deletion: EMP spam, SBI = 1222 
<61ttbn$ae11217@beta.airnet.net> [newsgroup(s) ...]

For higher-volume NoCeM activity, this may be compressed to a single line in order to save space. Here's an example from Andrew Gierth's NoCeM message <nocem-binspam-19981219114011$443f@erlenstar.ml.org> of 19 Dec 1998:

The additional information provided is:
# ORIGIN-SITE NNTP-POSTING-HOST TRACKING-ID BI/DAYS

[...]

@@BEGIN NCM BODY
# goodnet.com 208.253.125.190 c+Be2fBtfbV1FgWZ5P3RjA== 913.475/43
<c7Me2.5214$Jq3.576502@news.goodnet.com> alt.sex.www.sexzilla.com [...]

Dates in Change Log

The Change Log was first published 20 Dec 1998. Some earlier dates were reconstructed and may be inaccurate.

Color-coding

The red, yellow and green color-coding of deletion criteria is strictly our responsibility. We will take an issuer's own preference to heart, but we do not guarantee to observe it.

Note that, while using the same 'traffic light' colors, the non-bold red, yellow and green color-coding of deletion criteria entries has a completely different meaning than the bold coding of must, should and may for levels of requirement as used in our policy..