Re: Mailing list policy

[Lloyd Wood <l.wood at eim.surrey.ac.uk>]

On 20 May 2001, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

> Andy Fletcher <andy at cyberware.co.uk> writes:
> > There appears to be a lot of spam on this list at the moment. Most of it 
> > appears to be coming from addresses which probably are not subscribed to the 
> > list.
> > 
> > If the list posting policy is 'open' can it be changed to 'subscribed 
> > addresses' only?  This won't stop legitimate posts as there is no reason to 
> > post to the ietf list unless you are subscribed to it

That assumption crops up a lot.

In the IETF, there's often reason to cross-post to WG lists that you
aren't subscribed to, when discussion veers that way. The IESG
does that a lot, and 'subscriber only' policies will hold up IESG
business as a result.

(Recent example: UDLR advanced to proposed standard. IESG mail on same
got held up for several days. See Poisson and UDLR list archives.)

If spam on this list bothers you, subscribed to ietf-censored instead.

If spam in general bothers you, install some mail filters to protect
your sensitive eyes.


> > but will stop the bulk of the spammers.
> 
> I've run a lot of lists that way, including some IETF mailing lists,
> and it has worked out fine. It stops most spam but does not
> inconvenience most subscribers.

Quite a few IETFers have more than one email address.

L.

<L.Wood at surrey.ac.uk>PGP<http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/>