[MUD-Dev] META: Making the list public?

[Shawn Halpenny]

clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:
> 
> Proposal:
> 
> Please comment.
> 
> A web site is established which details the list, its purpose,
> policies and other related data.  Archives of list traffic are made
> available untouched to list members only via email request
> (standardised format).

Acceptable if not all archives are publicly available and as long as a
list-published method of obtaining them is provided (perhaps as part of the
standard invitation text).

>                         Copies of list traffic are available on the
> web site with the email addresses munged as follows:
> 
>     -- All period characters (".") replaced with commas (",")
>     -- All at characters ("@") replaced with asterixes ("&").
>     -- Order of the userID and site/domain reversed (I'm not
>        keen on this one)
> 
> Without the last rule "bubba at site.dom" would become "bubba&site,com".
> With the last rule it would become, "site,dom&bubba".  The reason for
> this approach as versus BrandonG's approach of nuking the entire
> UserID section of the email address is that it remains fully human
> readable and human usable as is, and no sematic content is lost.  Only
> machine processing abilities are lost.  <<The choice of replacement
> characters is not cast in stone.  I could also see doing a
> "bubba(at)site,dom".>>
> 
> The address munging pattern would be posted on the web site.
> 
>   <<Yes, it is still machine parsable.  I suspect the odds however of
> a web-scanner unmunging and parsing the above forms and extracting
> valid email addresses is proximate to zero.>>

If the details of the munging are publicly available (and the pretty much
have to be), a determined idiot could conjure something up easily.
I suppose a determined idiot could work around almost any scheme, though.

> <<BrandonG and others!  Would this satisfy you?>>

This is fine.  Side note:  would spelling out the '@' and the '.'
make it any less parsable?  I doubt many web-scanners have the
ability to pick out what looks like a normal sentence:
    bubba at site.dom
        ||
    bubba at site dot dom.
This is not an entirely serious side note, but I had seen it done in
someone's sig somewhere long, long ago.

> I am not entirely happy with making all archives (even munged
> archives) publicly available.  I expect that I'll make only a fraction
> of the total list traffic available to public browsers.  (First guess:
> only the digests for the same day of the week as the current day will
> be readable at the web site)
> 
> The web site and associated list details are publicised on
> r.g.m.announce.  The ban on mentioning the list in other media is
> removed.

Fine too.

--
Shawn Halpenny

"I got food poisoning today.  I don't know when I'll use it."
                                            - Steven Wright