[Mailman-Developers] AOL's requirements for spam complaints

[moron]

On January 29, 2004 10:44 pm, you wrote:
> Sorry, I don't buy this argument. If you have two choices: use more CPU
> time and network, or improve the end-user experience, choosing "less
> work for the computer" is almost always the wrong answer.

Howdy.  I do not understand why you would feel that adding a personalized 
header makes the list experience any better.   Would Usenet be any better 
with a customized header for every news article you read?  There is a big 
difference in my mind between a discussion mailing list and a marketing  
system with "Dear <insert name here" type pseudo personalizations (a bit like 
a phone system inserting your name into the "please do not hang up" messages 
when you are on hold).  

I am also not convinced about the CPU argument.  That's a lot of extraneous 
message IDs to keep track of in databases, bounce detecting, etc. Instead of 
being able to deliver to a 100 AOL users at once you suddenly have to send 
100 separate messages.  Multiply that by a busy list (some of the ones I look 
over are up to 150 - 200 a day sometimes) and it is still significant, 
especially if binaries are involved.  I also wonder what effect it will have 
on archiving (I am not immediately sure but it could be ugly depending on 
whether it affects the threading complexity).   Another side effect is that 
some servers try to block large volumes of connections from servers as an 
anti-spam measure (Shaw Cable here in Canada did this recently) which this 
would be far more likely to trigger.  It's not Mailman's problem of course 
but something to keep in mind.

But if it works for you, hey go nuts.  But the argument to me sounds 
dangerously similar to the one Microsoft used to push using HTML in email 
which we are all still feeling the unfortunate fallout from (zero cognitive 
benefit, plenty of headache).  Just because computers are faster now does not 
mean that resources are suddenly free (as in beer).

Respectfully, IMHO of course.

Cheers

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