[h-e-w] Re: spam problem, moderation [sic] enabled, members only

[Michael R . Wolf]

David Vanderschel <address@hidden> writes:

> No one has dissented on restricting posting to subscribers, and I
> received a few private messages encouraging the change.

For crying out loud... It's only been 1 day, and a non-working holiday
at that. Give it some time!!! Patience is a virtue. This problem
didn't crop up over night - it doesn't need to be solved over night,
especially in a manner that does more harm than good (in the view of
of the entire collection of folks who read this group).

I applaud your eagerness to serve the community. Please listen to the
responses before you do something *to* us instead of *for* us, and
remember that listening for you happens at the speed of the readers.

> In the meantime, I have enabled moderation.

I'm all for moderation -- both senses intended.

I have relied heavily on this group to get myself unstuck from emacs
problems. Adding impedance to the posting problem has, in the past,
added to my level of frustration. I love to use emacs for my email
reader and for my news reading. I've gotten into deadlock positions
before where my "registration" couldn't get processed for the very
same reasons I was requesting help from the list -- my email was
hosed. Adding more impedance in this way would certainly cut me off
even more when I need help the most.


> Unfortunately, this will slow things down a bit.
> Fortunately, we rarely have any time-critical crises
> on the list.  ;-)
> I will try to check at least twice a day.  (At least
> the moderation approach still allows anyone to post.)
>
> I still regard this as temporary, but I am not getting
> any feedback from the gnu.org administrators for
> Mailman in general.  

To be expected -- Merry Christmas, dude! 

Ease up!!! Chill!!! Take a long winter's nap.

Thanks again for your willingness to help fix the problem.  

I've taken *significantly* more time to compose this response than it
would have taken to deal with many months of spam (it's real easy to
hit the "d" key -- I've got lots of practice at it, and it takes
milliseconds to do) on this list because I believe that restrictions on
free posting has significant implications for the kinds of discussions
that happen in an open forum such as this, and as such those
restrictions must have a clear and compelling benefit. Censorship for
the benefit of the listener always has unintended consequences
independent of the intent, no matter how well intended.

Again, thanks for your intent.  And your patience.

Michael Wolf


-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        address@hidden