Antony Stone wrote: > Bob Proulx wrote: > > I was not aware that this mailing list requires one to be subscribed > > to post to it. Does it? It's not necessary on most technical mailing > > lists. > > I would in fact say the exact opposite: most mailing lists do > require subscription in order to post, primarily in order to reduce > spam from random addresses.
But, but, but... SpamAssassin's entire purpose is an anti-spam function! Oh the irony of it! > After all, if just anyone, without subscription, can post to a list, then > it's > open to the entire Internet, and then, as we all know, anarchy ensues... Hmm... No. I disagree. It's not if-one-then-the-other. All that is needed to disprove it is one example. And as it happens I can list two immediately. So as it happens I am actually one of the anti-spam admins for the lists.gnu.org mailing lists. There are some 1,500+ mailing lists there. Most of them are bug reporting mailing lists. Requiring people to subscribe to a mailing list in order to make a report would be much too burdensome. Therefore the bug reporting lists are open lists and anyone may post there and it does not require subscriptions. I know that many will argue that there is nothing but chaos and anarchy there but there is very little spam on the mailing lists! (If people do see spam there I welcome reports so that problem can get addressed. Send reports to the mailman AT gnu.org address please.) One of the major components of the anti-spam to those mailing lists is SpamAssassin. Plus some additional things too of course. Secondly the Debian project mailing lists are extensive and extremely active too. The Debian lists are all open lists. Anyone may post to them. Many do! I am not directly involved there but I have been a long time community participant. If we can do it then why can't SpamAssassin do it for itelf? Don't answer as that's a rhetorical question. I already know the answer. The answer is because SpamAssassin is using the Apache Software Foundation infrastructure and Apache isn't operating their mailing lists that way. The SpamAssassin group could do things differently from Apache if they wanted to do so but using the Apache infrastructure has advantages and that is why they moved under that umbrella in the first place. And closed mailing lists are just one of the trade-offs of that decision and it is okay. Bob
