This pattern is neither necessary nor sufficient to detect email addresses
(i.e., there are legal addresses which fail, as well as illegal addresses
which pass, this pattern).
It does detect 'most' addresses, though.
> >> Substitution: get-faq@some-exploder.com
> >
> > Breaks kernel patches sent across the list
>
> Nope, only for those that get the news version. Patches always
> end up on www.linuxhq.com anyway, so everyone can get a clean copy.
> Better even, because the PGP/MIME/whatever corruption gets fixed.
>
> You can still read the list directly.
All of this is silly because it assumes that the spammers are not
directly subscribed to the mailing lists in the first place.
That assumption is demonstrably false.
NB, I also cannot detect any real difference between before-vger /
after-vger, so I think that insisting on no Usenet gateways is just plain
silly. But maybe that's just me.
NB2: IMHO, one-way gateways from anywhere to anywhere else are _evil_,
doubly so when they mangle return mail addresses.
-- Matthias Urlichs noris network GmbH