[Mailman-Users] surely can install mailman without root?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

jidanni at jidanni.org writes:

 > >> Is the above neglecting a fundamental principle?
 > 
 > SJT> Yes.  Security.  If your host allows you to do such things, I strongly
 > SJT> suggest you find one who won't. ;-)
 > 
 > My mom just spent $400 for me for 5 years at Dreamhost. What's the
 > worst that could happen? All the files on my account getting deleted?
 > No problem,

You need to learn that what *you* don't know can hurt the rest of us.
Specifically, if the files on your account can be deleted, they can be
replaced.  Eg, with a set of spam filters that open the floodgates to
a spammer, along with a brand new set of 1 million subscribers you
never heard of.

 > I'll just put mailman on a different one of my unlimited shell
 > users.

No, you'll lose all your unlimited shell users, and be banned for life
from that system.  Nor will your mother get her $400 back, since you
violated the AUP.

 > Imagine me not being to stop bad bots via .htaccess.
 > Imagine all mail going straight to the moderator queue with no
 > .procmail etc. filtering. That is what I'm worried about with only web
 > access.

You get what you pay for.  Hardware and bandwidth, unfortunately,
cannot be provided in infinite amounts at negligible cost the way that
software can.