Re: Proposed change for subscriptions...

Hal Vaughan said:
What concerns me is that Steve has some good points, but Anand is too
busy being right to listen. (I have to admit, Steve has been rather
strong in voicing his complaints.)

I admit I react poorly to certain behaviors. I am sorry for that and do
try to reign myself in. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.

In this case, there could be other solutions. For example, where do
people get the list address? If they find it on Debian web pages, it
would be possible to set up a form with a CGI script to allow
submitting an e-mail without being a subscriber and the CGI script
could include a spam filter.

I thought about that as well; hadn't gotten around to posting but glad
to see others are looking at tackling the problems brought up in
response to restricting list posting.

It would also be possible to add to the
mail list manager a routine that detects e-mail from non-subscribers.
I know challenge-response tactics aren't always popular, but something
like that could be set up so a newbie can ask a question without
joining and crap is still filtered.

I don't think C-R is as shunned when it comes to web forms. Besides one
could do the common practice of "enter this code" with a graphic next to
it which is designed to prevent machine-reading for automatic posting.
Most web forums do this. Furthermore one could also make such CGI posts
include a boilerplate request at the end, "This request came from the
d.o help CGI, please CC the author to ensure they will recieve a copy of
your response."

It seems to me a
challenge-response request is a fair price to pay if one wants help but
does not want to subscribe.

Don't we have C-R on this list now in the form of the confirmation
letter for subscription? Been years since I've gone through the process
so I might be misremembering.

--
Steve Lamb


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