Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

2021-05-17 Thread davidson

On Mon, 17 May 2021 davidson wrote:
[dd]

It seems to me that this rationale depends on a couple of unstated
premises:

1. If published, each mbox would contain one month's worth of
messages, all of the messages in one file.

2. it is significantly easier for spammers to download a single file
containing one month's worth of debian-user addresses, than it is to
crawl through individual messages (using, presumably, the posted
monthly author-indices).

[dd]


If last month's author-to-subject ratio is representative, then
publishing monthly per-subject mboxes (instead of monthly messages
containing all messages) would invalidate premise 2 (and contradict
premise 1, obviously).


s/invalidate/make irrelevant/



So, can anyone see a reason not to propose publishing monthly
per-subject mboxes?


--
Ce qui est important est rarement urgent
et ce qui est urgent est rarement important
-- Dwight David Eisenhower



Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

2021-05-17 Thread davidson

On Mon, 17 May 2021 Richard Owlett wrote:

On 05/17/2021 08:50 AM, Brian wrote:

On Mon 17 May 2021 at 04:58:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:


Some mailing list save posts in mbox format.
Is there any way to download specific threads from
lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format?


I've wondered this for a long time.


No.


I suspected that.


https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/02/msg02997.html

Bug #161440.


Thank you for this!



Only ~2 decades old. Wouldn't want to fix things too fast. :{


It is currently tagged wontfix. That means don't hold your breath.

But look at the rationale:

 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=161440#49

One reads, "As to the rationale: Making mboxes available facilitates
harvesting of mail addresses even more than the web archives."

It seems to me that this rationale depends on a couple of unstated
premises:

 1. If published, each mbox would contain one month's worth of
 messages, all of the messages in one file.

 2. it is significantly easier for spammers to download a single file
 containing one month's worth of debian-user addresses, than it is to
 crawl through individual messages (using, presumably, the posted
 monthly author-indices).

So why not just publish monthly *per-subject* mboxes?

I see about 180 distinct authors on last month's author index

 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/author.html
 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/author2.html

and about 160 distinct subjects on last month's subject index.

 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/subject.html
 https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/subject2.html

If last month's author-to-subject ratio is representative, then
publishing monthly per-subject mboxes (instead of monthly messages
containing all messages) would invalidate premise 2 (and contradict
premise 1, obviously).

So, can anyone see a reason not to propose publishing monthly
per-subject mboxes?


--
Ce qui est important est rarement urgent
et ce qui est urgent est rarement important
-- Dwight David Eisenhower



Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

2021-05-17 Thread Richard Owlett

On 05/17/2021 08:50 AM, Brian wrote:

On Mon 17 May 2021 at 04:58:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:


Some mailing list save posts in mbox format.
Is there any way to download specific threads from
lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format?


No.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/02/msg02997.html

Bug #161440.



Only ~2 decades old. Wouldn't want to fix things too fast. :{





Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

2021-05-17 Thread Brian
On Mon 17 May 2021 at 04:58:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

> Some mailing list save posts in mbox format.
> Is there any way to download specific threads from
> lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format?

No.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/02/msg02997.html

Bug #161440.

-- 
Brian.



Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

2021-05-17 Thread Richard Owlett

Some mailing list save posts in mbox format.
Is there any way to download specific threads from 
lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format?