Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 09:49:27 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: mavery@mail.otherwhen.com Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: spam [was: Earn Cash] Message-ID: <19990707094927.13632@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <199907062323.SAA13162@hostigos.otherwhen.com>; from Mike Avery on Tue, Jul 06, 1999 at 06:21:13PM -0500 References: <37823AD8.3EBAECA2@charm.net> <199907062323.SAA13162@hostigos.otherwhen.com>
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On Tue, Jul 06, 1999 at 06:21:13PM -0500, Mike Avery wrote:
> On 6 Jul 99, at 13:20, Dutch Collins wrote:
>
> > Sue Blake wrote:
>
> > > On Tue, Jul 06, 1999 at 10:11:25AM -0500, Mike Avery wrote:
> > > > Let's hope we don't have to live with it! Are the FreeBSD lists
> > > > filtered so only subscribers can post to them? That has all but
> > > > eliminated spam in the mailing lists I run.
>
> > > No, every public FreeBSD list works the same: anyone can post.
> > > That is not likely to be changed. This suggestion has been discussed ad
> > > nauseum, and the benefits of having the lists open always outweigh the
> > > risks involved. Other lists for other communities have different setups
> > > and rules. The FreeBSD lists are a special case, set up and run to suit
> > > this community's long standing habits and preferences.
>
> I'll point out that if someone is not a subscriber, they won't be able
> to see replies to their messages. So... even if the note sent to the list
> is legitamate, it's a waste of bandwidth as far as getting a reply to
> the person who posted the message.
No, that's not a problem because you're supposed to do a group reply
which sends them a copy whether they're on the list or not. This is
not a rule and not policed, but it is "the done thing 'round here"
and what you'll see all the old timers doing.
> So, without dragging things out, what are the factors that make
> letting people who are not in a list post to it seem justifiable?
Many of the movers and shakers and selfless volunteers in FreeBSD do
the kind of work that has them using all sorts of machines, and they
won't necessarily be sitting at their home PC when they want to send
a note, reply to a freebsd-questions plea for help, or offer code
fixes. If they can reply from where they are when they're in the mood,
they're more likely to do so. Remember, these are people working for us
for nothing, doing what they normally get paid big bikkies for, so
they don't want to hop through too many extra hoops to please us.
Also, say they've subscribed at home and post to a list from work, the
list copy will go to home as usual but the personal copy will reach
them at work, and quicker than the one that went through the list.
This leads to lively exchanges in real time that could not be achieved
any other way. A newbie-relevant example would be posting to
freebsd-questions from a friend's house because your system is stuffed,
and getting a helpful reply copied to your friend's place, then a few
minutes later getting a followup from someone else who found a mistake
in the first remedy suggested to you.
This happened to me in the early days. I used an alternative account to
post a message to -questions when in urgent need, and luckily Greg
Lehey just happened to be at his email at the time, responded and asked
for particular details which I then supplied and he commented on. We
had half a dozen messages each way within about ten minutes, plus some
other people butting in with things like "yeah, but watch out for this
too". I was really blown away by that. I'd used lists for years but it
had always been at least a 24 hour turnaround. If replies had gone to
the list only I wouldn't have seen them, and if they'd gone to me only
nobody else would have benefited. Not only did I get everything sorted
out quickly despite my inability to explain clearly enough at first,
but also every future FreeBSD user who has a similar problem will be
able to find the whole thread when they search the list archives.
Moral: Unless there is a good reason not to, always reply to both the
list and the person, for any FreeBSD list.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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