Rich Kulawiec wrote: > Nonsense. No piece of software is a substitute for understanding the basics. Hear, hear!! No list management software is so good that it can replace 100% of the list manager's intellect, whether that be for dealing with clueless subscribers, arcane bounces, mail systems that refuse to follow the standards, or any other standard, rule, or protocol that one might envision as being applicable to mailing lists. And I think that while a healthy dose of technical information is useful to list managers, it isn't an absolute requirement if there is someone else in the loop who does have those skills and can be utilized as the need arises, such as a system or mail adminstrator. My experience is that most new list managers will pick up quite a bit of information about e-mail from running their lists, but I think it is incumbent on the system/mail managers NOT to inflict poorly configured new lists upon the Internet. These days I think that means not allowing new lists without a confirm requirement for new subscribers unless there is a mighty good reason for it. (I can't THINK of such a reason right off the top of my head, but I'm willing to allow that one might exist.) I would go even further. I don't think that new Internet hookups should be permitted if they have wide open SMTP ports that don't prohibit relaying from unknown parties, among other security holes. And I think that the backbones should develop some real, ahem, backbone and disconnect sites or even entire networks that consistently abuse the net. -- Mike Nolan
