Blue Frog. Say it to someone and the general response from anyone not in the loop will be “Blue what?” Wiki, being all that it is, has a nice lil brief on the software and the company that created it.
Welcome to the loop: (wiki info)
The Blue Frog software tool, produced by Blue Security Inc., operated as part of a community-based anti-spam system which tried to persuade spammers to remove community members’ addresses from their mailing-lists by automating the complaint process for each user as they receive spam. Blue Security maintained these addresses in encrypted form in a Do Not Intrude Registry, and spammers could use free tools to clean their lists.
If you read on further you read on you’ll learn that Blue Security threw in the towel. This was a painful and sad day on the net. The SPAMmers appeared to have won. The SPAMmers wouldn’t let their revenue go away. The honest e-mailing folk on the net sighed and hid their heads under desks, pillows, and houses. The SPAM still found them.
Nothing could be done. We were doomed to a world of SPAM… Or so we thought!
From Digg: “It looks like a group of programmers has already stepped up to the plate to resurect Blue Frog. They’ve already applied on SourceForge, and are talking about having P2P components. Let’s see if we can’t lend them a hand!”
There is a chance that we, the honest net folk, can fight back without the help of big business. Plans are in the making. Coders are refilling their coffee makers with fresh grinds. The SPAMmers think they’ve won. They haven’t! Programmers, documenters, financial backers stand together and let’s fight the SPAMmers together. There are more of us and now is the time to unite!