Proposal: Disconnect comp.lang.python from python-list

[Richard Damon]

On 5/6/21 9:12 AM, Jon Ribbens via Python-list wrote:
> On 2021-05-06, Skip Montanaro <skip.montanaro at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Are you unaware that the group is already gatewayed to a moderated
>>> mailing list for which all of that work is already done?
>> What is this moderation of which you speak? I'm one of the Python
>> postmasters (I maintain the SpamBayes setup) and am aware of a
>> multi-part tool chain (black hole lists, SpamBayes, greylisting, etc),
>> but not of human moderation on a grand scale, just of the relatively
>> few posts which are held for the admins/moderators by SpamBayes. My
>> definition of "moderation" is that a human vets every post.
> That's not a definition that anyone else would use, I think,
> and I say that as a moderator of a Usenet group..
>
>> That's certainly not the case for python-list at python.org. Posts gated
>> from comp.lang.python to the mailing list only get passed through
>> SpamBayes. All other elements of the tool chain occur ahead of the
>> gateway.
>>
>> If we are using two different definitions of "moderation" I think it
>> is important to be clear what we mean.
> Are you saying that the messages that appear occasionally from people
> such as Ethan Furman claiming to be moderators and alleging that
> particular people have been banned or suspended are lies? And that the
> message I received once saying that my comp.lang.python post had been
> rejected from the list was also a lie?

No, as I mentioned in my other post. a "Moderated Mailing List" is
generally described as one which EVERY message is hand reviewed by a
person, and alloweed onto the list. python-list is NOT such a list.

One advantage of mediums like mailing lists, is that it is quite easy to
setup methods where all the mail goes through a gatekeeper, and it
automatically approves most messages, but a limited number of messages
get held to be reviewed. This is generally NOT described as a Moderated
List.

Usenet being a distributed system, doesn't support this model. Either
anybody can inject a message from wherever they are, no all messages are
sent to be reviewed, the unmoderated and moderated is a VERY sharp line.

In Usenet terms, lists like this would be described as loosely
robo-moderated. And it works a lot better for mailing lists than for
Usenet groups due to different rules about From: identification of messages.

-- 
Richard Damon