[Mailman-Developers] Patch for Mail Archive mirroring

[Brad Knowles]

At 5:01 PM +0900 2005-04-30, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>  Any subscriber might be keeping and publishing an archive of the list
>  posts.

	True enough.

>          If the listmaster doesn't like that, he should be vetting each
>  subscription, and making sure that each subscriber understands the
>  rules.

	We do that as much as we can.  We don't really care about some of 
the lists, but there are others we care about a great deal.

	In the particular case of Gmane, I think they either added our 
lists to their archives at a time when their policies weren't so 
clear, or they did so before I became the listmaster, and the people 
who were around for that role did not remember any conversations with 
the Gmane people.

>                                     This actually answers most of your
>  worries, Brad; ie, if Gmane gatewaying were part of the Mailman
>  configuration process rather than at Gmane's option, your ntp lists
>  would never have been gatewayed and archived, right?

	If I could guarantee that I always had full control over that 
process, from my end and without requiring any intervention on the 
part of personnel at Gmane (or mail-archive.com, or whomever), then 
I'd be happy with that part.

>  The second is that this patch evidently constitutes a significant
>  endorsement of The Mail Archive.

	I had thought about that too, but I couldn't come up with 
anything more than a recognition of the fact, so I didn't mention it. 
My original response was unclear enough as it was, and I knew it -- I 
didn't want to muddy the waters further.

>  ... if Mailman is going to endorse services that way.  I don't really
>  think it's a good idea in principle, though.  What happens if The Mail
>  Archive goes away or goes proprietary?  What are people going to think
>  if The Mail Archive's maintainers hire Barry or Brad?  Etc, etc.

	Good questions.  I don't think I have any answers.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.