[Lincs] RE: archive is private from now on!

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-09-14 22:44:27 +0100 sam ward <sam_ward45 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Iv read the news article on the website and i believe that making the 
> Archive 
> private would actually make people more inclined to join the mailing 
> list, 
> with the assurance that they wont be bombarded with spam!

I'm rather disappointed that that misleading news article appeared on 
the web site. Having a password-required archive is no zero-spam 
assurance: indeed, mailman is common enough that any robot attack on 
passworded archives will probably be written for mailman first (if it 
hasn't already) and nothing has been done to further obfuscate email 
addresses. The sensitive information actually needs to be removed, 
maybe with a web form to contact original authors. Just hiding it 
won't work: look up "security through obscurity" in your favourite 
computing reference for some reasons why.

Then you have the problem of people subscribing harvesters to the 
list. The only sure way to avoid your address falling into spammers 
hands is to post anonymously. Marc set the mailman anonymous option 
before, but switched back quickly.

The other approach is what I do, where I agressively spamtrap the 
mailbox I use for lists.

> If someone is 
> genuinely interested in joining the mailing list and wants to know 
> whats been 
> going on then its not hard for them to subscribe, look at the archive 
> and 
> then if they wish to, unsubscribe if what they see doesnt interest 
> them.

I think it wasn't hard for them to come to Boston Squash Club, so why 
wasn't the whole population of Lincolnshire there? Each barrier, 
however small, reduces take-up. This is a barrier requiring at least 
three web site visits and two mail checks to do the process you 
describe. For a large rural county mostly on dial-up, that seems a 
pain.

> From: lincsrequest at mailman.lug.org.uk 
[whole quote of digest beneath post]

Please trim your quotes and reply beneath. I have DSL, but I don't 
have a huge mailbox and I've read those emails before.

-- 
MJR/slef    My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
  Creative copyleft computing - http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
http://www.thewalks.co.uk stand 13,Lynn Carnival,12 Sep