On Wed, Nov 30, 2005, Alon Altman wrote about "Re: Assembly-related 
discussions":
>   So where does it belong? Do you think it makes sense to spam 217
> subscribers to discussions with information that interests less than 30? Do

Alon, the numbers you quote are not fair. The discussion on which proposals
to bring to the assemly interest more than the 30 who are able to physically
come to the assembly (not being able to come doesn't mean no interest), and
perhaps even more than the 50 or so (I don't remember the exact number) who
are voting members. If someone brought up a bad proposal, for example, my
guess is that some of the now-friends will try to change their status to
members and come to the assembly. And even if a friend doesn't want to (or
can't) become a voting member, I'm sure they'll be interested to learn about
proposed changes in the Amuta before these changes "suddenly" take effect on
them.

Like I said, we can hold assembly discussions on assembly@, like it was
originally planned for. If you need an automatic "can't unsubscribe from"
list for legal purposes, just create one. You can call it assembly-announce,
or something, and make it moderated so that only you can post to it.

By the way, since when is a topic that interests *at least* 25% of a list's
members considered off-topic, or even (as you call it) spam? I doubt that
any topic of discussion on [EMAIL PROTECTED], linux-il, or whatever other
list you can think of - actually interests more than 25% of a list's members.
But you don't create a separate mailing list for each topic - such "splinter
lists" are a grave mistake, because the conversation on them tends to die
down and people tend to stay away from them (even if you think that they
are "just two clicks away", this is an oversimplification).

> you think it makes sense to spam people who cannot unsubscribe? I think
> that may even be illegal, and certainly is unethical.

Like I said above, I don't see any reason why people should not be allowed
to leave assembly@ - just the reason that you decided to use it for something
it was not designed for (a membership list). But even if people can't
unsubscribe, I don't understand why you call this spamming: you can
"unsubscribe" by leaving the Amuta, if you really want. Just as you can't
unsubscribe from your physical mail (though I'd love to unsubscribe from it
and get only email), as long as you're an Amuta member.

>   If neither are acceptable there are only two options left - use meta or a
> new list (you may call it "assembly"). As you are opposed to meta, the only
> option remaining is a new list.

No, two *old* lists, actually - discussions@ and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you return assembly@ to be a normal mailing list (not a tool which can
only be used by the board to send announcments), it will become a more
reasonable option.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |  Wednesday, Nov 30 2005, 28 Heshvan 5766
[EMAIL PROTECTED]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Martin Luther King said "I have a dream",
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |not "I have a plan".

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