[Sussex] When should SLUG Meet?

[Steve 'Dobbo' Dobson]

Hi Jon

On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 Jon Fautley wrote:
> Steve 'Dobbo' Dobson wrote:
> > 1). Anyone can submit a vote at your location, only people signed
> >     up to this e-mail list can contribute to the e-mail vote.
> >     Are you volunteering to validate names submitted to the poll
> >     against the members of this list?  BTW - not everyone has submitted
> >     their name to the mail-list software.
> 
> Well, anyone would have to have the link for this, which is posted to
> this email list. I guess they could check the archives, but I doubt
> there's going to be massive gangs of people submitting incorrect
> information to this poll.

The web form that takes the names for moots got attached a while back.
All the passed attendees got signed up.

Someone suggested that it was google bot (or one of the other search
engine bots) just reading the page and following the links.  But several
search engine bots had visited the page and not cause any damaged.

Looking at the database it appears that some id10t just sat their and
clicked each name button to sign all the past attendees for that month.
A simple SQL hack later (based upon time) and I removed all the damaged.
I also changed the backend so the IP address that submitted the data is
also recorded.  That way if this happens again the SQL will be easier.

So it can happen.  The mentality of people that would do this is way
beyond me, but I have to acknowledge that they do exist and therefore 
try and plan for such an attack.

It take a lot more effort to sign up to the mail list than it does
to just enter some bogus data on a web form.

> > 2). Your voting recommendation does not have negative options.  
> >     Holbrook's veto of meeting on a Friday or Saturday can not
> >     be accommodate there.  I would argue that the negatives are
> >     just as important as the positives in this case.
> 
> It can if you don't add options for "Friday" or "Saturday" to the poll.
> I created that in less than 30 seconds as a demo, more than anything.

Removing "Friday" and "Saturday" would not allow people who want to 
vote for those days to do so.  What if 50 people would rather we meet
on a Friday - that would be a good reason to move the moot to that day
and find somewhere else to hold it.

> Getting people to vote for days they can't make it a bit pointless, too,
> imo. How does this tally up in the 'grand scheme' of things? Lets say 15
> people can make a Monday meeting, but one can't... does this mean that
> you'll not hold the vote on a Monday?
> 
> Surely if someone doesn't vote for a specific day, it's implied they
> can't make it?

No so.  We hold the meeting on the last Thursday of the month. 
Sometimes this is the fourth week of the month, sometimes the fifth.  If
someone has another engagement on the fourth Thursday of each month that
doesn't mean that they can't come to our meeting that occur on the fifth
Thursday - but they probably would rather we didn't meet on any Thursday
as this would improve the chances of coming.

Here I am not collecting votes in black or white.  There is a gray 
area in the middle that I'm not collecting data for, but I acknowledge
it exists.

> > 3). Everyone that submits a vote reminds everyone else that there
> >     is a vote going on.  The single posting of the Web 2.0 vote
> >     system would be forgotten after 48 hours by most people.  I
> >     doubt we would get the same response.
> 
> You have an automatic spam engine that emails the list every so often -
> why not just have it add the link to the next batch of spam emails, and
> send a few manual reminders out? It's not rocket science :)

I object to the automatic mailer being classed as spam.  My OED defines
the noun "spam" (rather than the verb) as:
  1). A tinned meat product, or
  2). Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a
      large number of newsgroups or users.

The auto-mailer reminder of a moot is both relevant and appropriate to the
group as a whole, it may not be to you because you now live to far to
make the trip, but to those of us that are prepared to travel it is very
much on topic.

But I could set up an auto reminder that there is a vote in progress.
But that would get irritating round about now.  I'm not expecting much
activity in the next two weeks, but I want to run the vote for that long
to allow for anyone away on holiday to have their say.

Steve
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