[Mailman-Developers] before next release: disable backscatter indefault installation

[Joshua 'jag' Ginsberg]

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>> Seeing as those running this are
>> volunteers I see no reason they should jump to do your bidding.  Seeing
>> your attitude I see no reason they should want to.
> 
> You're missing the point.  I'm an Abuse Admin.  This isn't my problem, nor
> is it my bidding.  If you run Mailman, this is *YOUR* problem.

Jo --

For what it's worth, you've stated your problem with impeccable clarity.
What you haven't done with the same aplomb is acknowledge and respond to
the equally legitimate concerns of the developer community here.

- - "I am asking that the developers start paying attention *NOW*."
- -- Reply: "Nobody has said they should ignore the problem, just that
*you* are *way* too late in the process to expect them to stop the
release of 2.1.10 for this major change in behavior."

- - "This is not substantive, it's trivial."
- -- Reply: "From the point of view of the release manager, there are no
trivial code changes to a release candidate."
- -- Reply: "A text change breaks 35 existing Mailman translations, and
breaks them to the extent that changing a single character in the
English text, causes that text to be rendered in English on the
translated page. This requires 35 translators or translation teams to
update their translations. This is anything but trivial."

And you're intermixing it with impatience and superciliousness:

"You are stuck in the last century, aren't you?" "Now that basic
education is out of the way..." "Sorry, as stated your proposal sounds
either naive or insane." "Hyperbole like this wastes everyone's time. I
don't care what is done.  Do something that makes it better."

Like it or not, Mailman is a major development project with limited
volunteer resources. It has strategically determined its own course --
security fixes and translation updates only for 2.1; new features
without major redesign for 2.2; major redesign for 3.0 -- and it has a
standard professional release cycle.

Like it or not, your complaint of backscatter, while completely accurate
and relevant, will not be fixed in the 2.10 timeline. And you need to
respect that to keep a stable, reliable product with the limited
volunteer resources it has, Mailman must follow these development
guidelines.

A compromise for 2.1 has been proposed -- a README.backscatter file,
better wiki documentation, and getting the information out so that under
the 2.1 framework backscatter can be minimized through sysadmin
awareness. I encourage you to take the lead in this effort since the
issue is clearly important to you. A halfway solution for 2.2 has been
proposed -- changing the default behavior -- and I encourage you to
provide the developers with strategic advice on how to make your life,
the abuse administrator, more manageable. And a good solution for 3.0
has been proposed -- an LMTP transport that can help Mailman do
SMTP-time rejections.

Mailman is a community project, and you'll find a receptive and helpful
audience for your issue when you give the community's concerns the
consideration they deserve.

- -jag
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