[Mailman-Users] Re: cleartext passwords

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 2 Oct 2000 12:47:37 -0700 
Chuq Von Rospach <chuqui at plaidworks.com> wrote:

> At 12:32 PM -0700 10/2/00, J C Lawrence wrote:
>> Its purely there so that someone away from their normal accounts
>> can continue to operate.  Look at it this way:
>> 
>> Given the confirm business:
>> 
>> Authentication is two level: you know the subscription address
>> and you get mail sent to it.
>> 
>> Given a password:
>> 
>> Authentication is two level: you know the subscription address
>> and the password associated with it.

> But, how much work is this, and what does it accomplish that
> simply e-mailing the admin for help in a case like this doesn't?
> And how many users would actually do it?

As to how many, I don't know and I suspect the number would be
extremely small (but would enclude me).  As to admin help, I don't
believe that a list server should encourage traffic to the list
owner, or even make it ever so slightly easier.

My standard and rote policy is to always refuse all requests for
help from me as the list owner.  I will not unsubscribe anyone, or
change their list options for them.  I answer questions and point to
things they can do for themselves.  I will point them at the list
pages, and help them understand what they need to do, and that's
about it.

> On my lists, I can honestly say that the percentage of users who'd
> do this is well under 1% (I say this with some confidence, since
> I've run MLMs with functionality like this in the past). I think
> my user base is fairly typical. I can't justify spending lots of
> programming resources on functions that only the hard-core
> off-the-bell-curve folks (like some list-admins, but I'd bet most
> folks on this list running mailman wouldn't use this!) would use.

I stand convicted (and that's without a truss).

> Is this a feature for general use? In theory, maybe. In practice,
> no.  So why put much programming energy into it?

Largely because its there already.

-- 
J C Lawrence                                 Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                               Other: coder at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/        Keys etc: finger claw at kanga.nu
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--