[MUD-Dev] Re: [Fwd: MUD-Dev]

[Travis S. Casey]

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998 coder at ibm.net wrote:

[suggestions for dividing up the list deleted]

Well, in my admittedly limited experience, mailing lists don't tend to
have the problems with spam and low signal-noise ratios that newsgroups
do.  Part of this is because of the differences in the kinds of people
that newsgroups and mailing lists attract (mailing lists often attract
those who don't want to put up with the spam and noise on newsgroups) and
part is because it's easier to forcibly remove someone from a mailing
list.

If we want to open the list to the public, I'd suggest not using any kind
of two list or two-level model.  Instead, use the normal devices used to
keep undesirables off of mailing lists:

 - Make it a closed list in the sense that only subscribers to the list
   can post to it.  That cuts out any spam bots which see the list address
   somewhere, and any spammers who aren't smart enough/bold enough to 
   subscribe to the mailing list.

 - When someone subscribes to the list, send mail to the address being
   subscribed asking for confirmation.  This prevents people from
   subscribing others to the list (either accidentally or intentionally)
   and prevents spammers from subscribing with fake addresses.

Of course, this won't prevent all possible attacks on the list, but it
will prevent the vast majority of them.

The biggest problem I've seen on open lists (and on newsgroups, for that
matter) is that the same topics tend to get rehashed over and over --
people join who don't know that it was discussed to death two months ago.
We've already had that problem to some extent, and I think we can handle
it the way we do now:  via the FAQ, archives, and simply politely letting
people know "we discussed that already -- why don't you check out the
summary at <wherever> and then we can start talking about it again if
you've got something new to discuss about it."

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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