Exponential backoff is an algorithm that uses feedback to multiplicatively decrease the rate of some process, in order to gradually find an acceptable rate. It is often used in network congestion avoidance to help determine the correct sending rate. For example, a sender might send a message, set a timer to wait 0.25 seconds for an acknowledgment, and if none arrives, retransmit the message and wait 0.5 seconds an acknowledgment, etc.
Clearly an exponentialbackoff algorithm would be sufficient to allow me to post at my prolific rate, and still slow down a spammer's posting robot.
Exponentialbackoff was installed on EarthLink news servers sometime in July of 1997.
Nevertheless, I feel that the consistency of this metric coupled with the dramatic drop in Usenet volume abuse indicate that exponentialbackoff is quite successful at preventing the abuse of resources that occurs when ISP customers post too much.
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