[Mailman-Users] Best practices

[Lawrence Bowie]

Excellent .. Thanks guys .. good and informative responses.

LDB

Christopher Adams wrote:
> Mostly, I agree with Mark on this. You really have to balance what
> individual list owners want, how individual lists operate, and the fact that
> you may host/administer so many lists that the best choice is the same for
> all.
> 
> We host over 500 lists. Originally, the default was to 'Hold' messages from
> non-members. This might include subscribers who's address had changed or
> individuals who thought they were on the list. This is where we needed to
> reevaluate the situation. Many list owners are busy and don't want to
> continually take action on posts from non-members. However, many list owners
> also don't want messages from 'non-members' to be automatically discarded.
> 
> Our solution was to make the default to 'Reject', but send a message to the
> sender, indicating that their message was rejected because either they are
> not a member or their address has changed. One problem with this solution is
> that the option for multiple languages becomes a bit of  an issue.
> 
> On 7/23/06, Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net> wrote:
> 
>>David Gibbs wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Lawrence Bowie wrote:
>>>
>>>>I have been rejecting messages from non-members but I am
>>>>not sure that is the best practice. Is it better to "discard"
>>>>rather than "reject" non-members messages?
>>>
>>>It depends on the message ... if the message is topical, then I reject
>>>the message indicating that to post a person must be subscribed, and if
>>>they are subscribed, then they might be posting from a different email
>>>address.
>>>
>>>If the message isn't topical, then I just discard it (for which the
>>>'discard all messages marked as deferred' check box is a boon), as those
>>>are usually just spam.
>>
>>
>>So you have generic_nonmember_action set to 'Hold', and you (or a
>>moderator) make a decision on each post.
>>
>>I think Lawrence is asking a different question, namely, should
>>generic_nonmember_action be 'reject' or 'discard'?
>>
>>This is a controversial question, and the answer really depends on the
>>list. The 'good' answer is that spam should be filtered out ahead of
>>Mailman. Then Mailman and the list owner don't have to worry about
>>'blowback' and spam forwarding issues, but this solution isn't always
>>available.
>>
>>If you have spam reaching Mailman, it is clearly best to discard the
>>spam without sending any kind of 'reply'. Note that holding and then
>>discarding the message only does this if respond_to_post_requests is
>>set to 'No'. Otherwise, by the time the moderator sees the message, a
>>hold notification reply has already been sent.
>>
>>Unfortunately, once the post gets to Mailman, Mailman applies the
>>generic_nonmember_action in every case. I think we all agree that for
>>spam (if it gets this far), this should be discard, but there are
>>lists for which this is not appropriate if the message is not spam.
>>
>>In the past, Brad has posted examples to this list of situations where
>>silently discarding an attempted post has caused significant problems
>>for the non-member who thought the post had been received.
>>
>>In short, this is a list specific decision. Is your list one where you
>>have non-members attempting to post? What are the consequences if that
>>post is discarded without notice? How do these balance with spam
>>blowback/forwarding considerations to the extent that spam gets this
>>far?
>>
>>--
>>Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
>>San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan
>>
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