Re: gnu-emacs-help news->mail gateway

[Tim Cross]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 1:39 PM, Glenn Morris <address@hidden> wrote:
> Tim Cross wrote:
>
>> are when I post to newsgroups BTW) and I would challenge your point
>> regarding spam.
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.help/topics?lnk=srg
> contains spam
>
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/
> does not contain spam
>

You miss the point.

With a mail list, I have to provide my email address to a list
administered by someone else and I'm at the mercy of how well that
list is administered wrt how easily addresses on that list can be
harvested and added to spam lists.
With newsgroups or even web forums, I do not need to provide a real
email address.

We could argue that those administering the gnu lists know what they
are doing and set them up so that addresses cannot be harvested. This
would be a reasonable assumptuion, provided of course that the hosts
the lists are managed on have never been hacked :)

You comparison above is meaningless - all it shows is that one has
better spam filtering. For all you know, those subscribed to the mail
list may receive much higher levels of of spam DIRECTLY to their
address as a result of having subscribed to that list. The bottom line
is, to participate via a mail list, you have to provide a legitimate
email address. To participate on newsgroups and even horrible web
forums, you do not need to provide an email address (some web forums
may require registration to post, but usually not to read).

Tim


-- 
Tim Cross