To clear something up here:
Onelist and eGroups (the corporations have merged but the services still
operate separately) both have functions for add-with-confirm and direct-add.
They encourage using add-with-confirm the onelist.com web site states that
direct-add should be used only when one is transfering an existing list from
another host.
Yes, direct-add is at risk of abuse, and it has been abused, and there have
been occasions on both sides where management has taken action when abuse has
been reported. But whenever, in fora for discussing running lists on those
hosts, someone suggests removing the direct-add feature, other listowners
howl and scream that their lists need to reach a contingent of people who
are too helpless with email to carry out the instructions of confirming a
subscription.
The objections do not come from spammers but from people running lists for
non-technical topics, many of whom have actually had experiences with people
lost and confused at the directions to reply to the confirmation request.
(Then there are people using webmail from sites that run BigMailBox, which
won't let you reply to an address that includes an equal sign and which can-
not return an NDN for an undeliverable item if the envelope sender address
includes an equal sign. They truly cannot reply to confirmation requests
from onelist.com or egroups.com but have to follow the directions for con-
firmation by HTTP instead.)
Personally, I'd rather see it removed. Anyone incapable of answering email
is no asset to a mailing list and probably unable to gain anything from
reading a list's mail either, and anyone using a BigMailBox site should
be told of its limitations and should open an additional webmail account
at a site with less despotic software.
[On the list for discussing the Onelist/eGroups merger, one member offered
anyone who desires an additional email address to use his webmail, which runs
BigMailBox. He really wasn't offering much help.]
