[Mailman-Users] Public link to subscriber-only list?

[JC Dill]

Brad Knowles wrote:
> At 2:18 PM +0200 2005-07-18, Jean Delvare wrote:
> 
> 
>> 1* Make the list public (possibly by making non-member posts moderated
>> rather than rejected).
> 
> 
> 	We tried that.  The moderators couldn't keep up with all the 
> spam, plus all the legitimate moderated posts.  There's just too much 
> traffic on the list.

There were several problems with this approach:

1)  Filtering out all the spam.  Lots of spam.  Lots of spam that gets 
past spam filters.  It meant we had to moderate all non-member posts and 
sometimes this didn't get done for a while when moderators were busy.

2)  Sometimes someone would reply just to the list, and if the person 
asking wasn't subscribed to the list then they didn't get the reply. 
This was often the case as a thread grew and grew a long list of cc's, 
posters would trim to reply just to the list rather than to the list and 
all of the prior contributers.

3)  Due to having to moderate all non-member posts to filter out spam, 
this meant that someone with an urgent question sent their message off 
and it didn't get posted until who-knows-when later, when a moderator 
could get around to approving the on-topic posts and rejecting the spam. 
   Sometimes we would find several increasingly urgent messages from 
someone because they hadn't figured out that subscribing would get their 
message posted straight away.

We changed to the current format because it puts things in the control 
of the poster.  You subscribe, you confirm, you post, and your message 
goes thru NOW, not later when a moderator gets around to dealing with 
the held non-member posts.  You always get the replies even if they go 
just "to the list".  You also have a welcome message that encourages you 
to READ THE FAQ and SEARCH THE ARCHIVES which answer about 90% of the 
questions asked on the list and therefore will solve your problem even 
faster.

The downside is that as you noticed, the expectation of what you get 
when you click on the link isn't what happens.  I think the best 
solution is to better present "what you get", which is your solution #2 
below.


>> 2* Make the link point to the list subscription page [2] rather than the
>> list address itself, as subscribing is the first thing that needs be
>> done here. This might add to confusion more than help though.
> 
> 
> 	We might consider that.  We'll talk it over between the webmaster 
> and postmaster/mailing list personnel.

I like this solution.  We have talked about it in the past, perhaps we 
will implement it now.

>> 3* Remove the link altogether, as proposals 1 and 2 don't sound really
>> good.
> 
> 
> 	#2 is a better option.

+1

jc - volunteer assistant admin on mailman-users