[Mailman-Users] Stop the Confirmation E-Mail

[Jon Carnes]

On Wed, 2004-03-17 at 19:45, Jamie Penman-Smithson wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-03-17 at 23:12, Steven Massey wrote:
> > Jon,
> > 
> > Thanks for the response.  I would tend to agree with you, but this 
> > client is particularly insistent on setting it up this way.  Perhaps 
> > people on the list could help me by providing some fodder to argue why 
> > there should be a confirmation e-mail.  I've tried saying that people 
> > could be maliciously signed up for a list they never wanted to be on, 
> > but they don't seem to think that is really an issue.  Are there other 
> > reasons I can provide?  Even the smallest things could be useful.
> 
> [This may come out slightly stronger than I intended, but it's something
> I feel very strongly about - spam...]
> 
> A single forged email is all that's needed to get someone subscribed to
> a mailing list they didn't want to be subscribed to, and it is far too
> easy to forge the sender with SMTP.
> 
> By doing that you're simply creating *more spam*, and probably
> (hopefully - it'd mean they'd be doing their job) end up blacklisted by
> the major RBL's, not to mention have lots of irate users asking you why
> they are subscribed to a mailing list they didn't want.
> 
> That would mean that most of the mail sent out by your client (and your
> server) would be promptly rejected.
> 
> Not requiring confirmation also means you can end up with a mass of
> email addresses that aren't valid on your mailing list, creating endless
> bounces, and more work for your MTA (and Mailman).
> 
> If you or your client doesn't think that is going to happen (IOW the
> mailing list won't get any spam), they need to get a clue - it won't be
> long before you start getting spam to those ML's. If you have any sense
> of responsibility you'll persuade them that this is definitely not what
> they want.
> 
> Just my opinion... take it or leave it..

Additionally there are several Anti-spam laws in the works that would
*require* a confirmation before adding a user to a mailing list -
additionally they require accurate unsubscribe information to be
included within each list message.

Mailman meets the requirements of any current laws, and those being
considered by parliaments the world over.