[Mailman-Users] MM lists on Gmane

[Bretton Vine]

Brad Knowles said the following on 2006/09/16 09:07 PM:
> The reason that they were removed from Gmane is that they tell us 
> they have a policy of always contacting the listowner to see if it's 
> okay for them to carry the list on their site

This is not the case with some lists on the server I admin. Industry 
specific lists were added without the consent of the domain owner or 
list-owner.

Additionally mail-archive.com has archived other lists without list-owner 
consent as well. Additionally their terms of service do not allow you to 
request the removal of the list only to prevent further archival by removing 
their archive address from the subscribers.

I'm making no comment on the ppl behind gmane etc as I don't know them 
personally enough to comment, and I applaud efforts at making archives of 
useful lists available in a standards compliant, easily-searchable format.

However I have nothing but criticism for the practise of making lists 
available online without list-owner's consent. It's as bad as forwarding 
posts from someone to a third-party list without the posters permission. 
Earlier this year this happened when someone's comments (said somewhat in 
jest) for forwarded to an enthusiasts forum as an example of hate speech 
type behaviour. This led to intimidating phone calls and allegedly death 
threats to the poster from individuals he didn't know at all who took his 
forwarded comments completely out of context.

It was a very sad week for the community network I look after. We've had 
people meet, get married and have kids because of the lists and the related 
communities. To see that abused in a negative manner was unacceptable and 
led to a lack of openness in new subscriptions meaning that now for some 
lists people have to be vetted and archives are completely banned.

Online means of archiving lists are useful -- don't get me wrong -- but some 
sense of polite protocol must be observed to prevent abuse. Besides, doesn't 
the mailman list already have an web-accessible archive front-end?

-- 
| Bretton Vine | 083 633 8475 | bretton at hivemind.net |
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