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

[Matt Chatterley]

On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

> Proposal:
> 
> Please comment.

Rightydokie.
 
> 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).  Copies of list traffic are available on the
> web site with the email addresses munged as follows:

Sounds goodly to me..
 
>     -- 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)

Both the first two are good (keeping it human readable but not readily
machineable.. at least not without effort).

[Snip]

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

This satisfies me, at least, but I'm not too fussed on giving out email
address etc to begin with - the spammers already have me down. :P

> 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)

Something of the sort, at least to start with - perhaps going with that
days digests, as you suggest, is a good plan. It sounds fine, at any rate.
Then genuinely interested parties can read up.
 
> 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.

Right.
 
> I'm still debating how to handle membership.

Perhaps something akin to the way institutions such as the IEE handle such
things. Applications (giving certain information) are freely accepted, but
you must be 'undersigned' by a given number of existing members, to be
passed.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's
	mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." -George Orwell