[Python-Dev] Offtopic: OpenID Providers

[Barry Warsaw]

On Sep 10, 2013, at 08:08 AM, Guido van Rossum wrote:

>Why do several posts in this thread have an Unsubscribe link that tries to
>unsubscribe me from the list? (I saw one by Glen, and another one by Donald
>Stufft.)

This is way off topic, but I suspect your original response didn't trim your
little unsub footer and they didn't trim it from their responses.

Looking at my list copy of *this* message, I see my own unsub footer, but my
MUA automatically trims it in my response buffer.  OTOH, I always try to trim
my responses anyway, which I think is good netiquette, and which is easy for
me with Emacs as my edit/composer of messages.

>(Come to think of it, what's the point of having an Unbub link in ever
>message that goes out?)

As a general Mailman feature, it decreases the likelihood that laypeople who
want off a mailing list will do bad things to unsub because they can't figure
out how to do it, like complain back to the list or the admins, spam block, or
worse, report the list as spam.  All of which and more we've seen in the wild.
Adding the footer with the unsub block doesn't eliminate this, because some
people are lazy, stressed, mean, or frustrated, but it does reduce the
incidences.

Now, whether it's appropriate for a highly technical list like python-dev is
up for discussion (but maybe not here?).  While messages are personalized on
this list (meaning, you get a unique copy of it for bounce tracking, and yes
unsub personalization), those unsub stanzas cannot currently be disabled on a
per-user basis.

-Barry