This newsgroup (comp.lang.python) may soon be blocked by Google Gro

[Tim Golden]

On 09/02/2018 05:00, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Feb 2018 23:40:57 +0000, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> 
>> I don't see any spam in my inbox as I read on gmane, I'm pointing out
>> the disgraceful state of gg and why it should be dropped as it's less
>> than useless.
> 
> Who is it that you think should "drop" Google Groups?

If Mark means: the mailing list gateway should automatically drop posts 
originating from GG, then this wouldn't really buy us anything we don't 
have.

I think it's unlikely that anyone still following this thread isn't 
aware of the situation, but just in case:

We have a newsgroup (comp.lang.python) and a mailing list (python-list) 
which are mirrored to each other by virtue of the Mailman gateway (ie 
the mailing list handles both sides of the mirror).

Google Groups offers a mail & web interface to the newsgroup

Gmane offers a newsgroup interface to the mailing list

The newsgroup is entirely unmoderated and unfiltered

The mailing list is moderated and filtered in different ways:

* We block (hold or discard) mailing list posts by subscriber

* We block inbound usenet posts by header (usually sender email but 
also, eg, ISP)

* We have a Spambayes instance running which injects a spam score header 
and we block on that header

* We have a few other more specific filters in place for various issues 
which have arisen over the years

By and large, this combination of filters, coupled with the work of the 
moderation and postmaster team, is enough to keep the list "clean" of 
manifest spam and so on. Obviously, the first instance of spam might 
slip past all our filters, in which case we're on the back foot and have 
to react. On the whole, though, we catch most things.

So dropping GG altogether would probably not add very much, as we're 
generally blocking undesirable posts from there and we'd rather not 
block genuine posts which happen to be made through the relative 
convenience of the GG interface.

Can I call out for thanks here the people who have worked behind the 
scenes for quite a long time to keep this list running smoothly, 
including: Skip Montanaro who manages the Spambayes setup; Mark Sapiro, 
the Mailman 2 dev lead who looks after all the python.org Mailman2 
instances; Ralf Hildebrandt who acts as Postmaster; of course Barry 
Warsaw who created Mailman (and this list, I believe) and still 
contributes when we need to discuss matters as list owners; of course 
Ethan Furman, my fellow list moderator; and doubtless others whom I've 
forgotten. The fact that the list continues to be readable and useful is 
down in large part to them.

TJG