FreeBee - 7:16 am on Apr 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

You won't find many places around where you post your query, sleep on a problem and then awake to find over a dozen constructive suggestions - kudos to WebmasterWorld!

Thanks all. We had a general spam problem last year [webmasterworld.com] which was mostly solved by blocking all yahoo.com senders unless they arrived through a form. Most definitely the single most valuable step which now trashes around 200 incoming mails a day as they hit the server. Each event sends out a customised 551 error message so that any real prospects caught by the filter are provided with an alternative means of contact. In addition we've added some of the earlier suggestions to our war on spam - looks like Mailwasher needs a check out.

As for my immediate problem I'm giving the editor the benefit of the doubt assuming that one of his minions (read morons!) did the mailing without permission - he'll receive a short reply and note that they've been blocked for good.