[Mailman-Users] A Vote Against Passwords

[Chuq Von Rospach]

At 4:02 PM -0700 8/2/00, Dan Mick wrote:

>She doesn't have to know.  She's been told she needs it, and to
>save it, in no uncertain terms.  That's all she needs to know.

No, she also needs to be told WHY, in a way that she understands adn 
agrees. Otherwise, she blows you off -- and should. I don't think you 
intended it as such, Dan, but this came across as rather patronizing.

>And it's a trivial task.

To those of us who do mail lists seriously (or for a living), maybe. 
it's not nearly that easy or obvious for novices. Try spending time 
working with them, or even better, doing user tests with them. Lotsa 
fun, that.

>  > 3) Most people don't know how to file their emails.  They have enough
>>  problems using the backspace key.
>
>I don't believe that.

Believe. If your users aren't like that, be happy you work with a 
more experience group of users than some of us do.

>  >	I'm thinking of the network appliance and IMac users, here, not
>>  Unix sysadmins such as the people subscribed to this list.  It's very easy
>>  for us to forget that the general public can't distinguish between the
>>  monitor and the CPU.
>
>You don't need to do that.

yes, you do. You'r ebeing patronizing again.

>  >	...not for my grandmother (or even my mother)....
>
>Nonsense.  They have notepads, and know how to use them, if they
>insist on not learning that basic function of the computer.

Why should they, though? All you've said is "because I said so". 
That's a rotten reason.

>OK, I'll fall back on the Standard Mailman-Users response: any
>mailing list member I'm interested in supporting will find some
>way to store, using a computer or a notepad or a wallet or a Daytimer
>or a memory or a pen on the back of the hand, a password.

Then you ought to try running lists where you need the users more 
than they need you. It's very eye opening. but if you run lists where 
you can dictate "do it my way or leave, and I don't care", it does 
save you a lot of hassle...

I can't.

-- 
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:chuqui at plaidworks.com)
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:chuq at apple.com)

And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
and say 'Man, what are you doing here?'"