By appending in the Posfix configuration file line smtpd_recipient_restrictions = ... spamcop and spamhaus , spam decreases in like 95% without even touching your server further (spamassassin I'm looking at you).
I you add greylisting you get rid virtually of all of spam.
Point taken, but I've been on the receiving end of what I would consider false-positive blocks by Spamhaus & co. They sometimes have policies about what's considered spam that I don't think all their end users would agree with. I've been blocked for having an IP address on the same provider as someone else who allegedly advertised their website via spam. If you're running a mailing list, dealing with the anti-spam stuff is at least as big a problem as the spam it was supposed to solve.
I've never had a case of a false positive complain but yes, they can happen and I don't terribly mind because that means the sender's mail server is blacklisted and they should know.
Also in any case my recommendation is to use a 3rd party mail service, for deliverability reasons mostly.
I don’t really like greylisting, as it takes longer for email to get through. What did help without any perceivable loss whatsoever is being extensively strict about SMTP specifications (e.g. proper hostnames in EHLO) and things like PTR records. I really like watching these ‘5xx: Client <something> rejected’ flying by in my mail.info :)
I'm all for cleaning up email.
If an otherwise normal email happens to come from a blacklisted computer, it'll still have a chance to get through, which is the correct thing to do, in my opinion.
I still believe that everyone has the right to run their own SMTP server, and I dislike that so many places blacklist someone just because they are on a cable modem.
Not sure about "vague comment"s but anyone who has run an email server, used an rbl/rhsbl, and followed the logs <http://www.postconf.com/docs/spamrep/> would say the same. Having done so for years and run reports on dozens of servers daily it is clear that blacklists are the most effective form of spam blocking, by at least an order of magnitude.
Could be a bug in your web browser. The first sentence is a quote as indicated by the ">" character at the beginning of the line.
I got that part, I'm talking about your first sentence.
... anyone who has run an email server... would say the same.
This reads as though you agree that "IP blacklists are a waste of everyone's time" as OP said. And maybe you do (and that's fine) - I'm just unclear given your second sentence.
(1) keeping in mind that the definitions of "spam" can be quite subjective
If you're running a bulk mailing server you simply must respond to abuse reports, otherwise your service will get blacklisted and be essentially useless. Other providers such as mailchimp are much more proactive about getting rid of spammers.