[pydotorg-www] Repeated outages of python.org

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Michael Foord wrote:
> On 25/07/2011 11:52, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>> Michael Foord wrote:
>>> On 25/07/2011 10:10, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>>>> Hi Michael,
>>>>
>>>> Michael Foord wrote:
>>>>> On 25/07/2011 09:56, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>>>>>> Could one of the list admins please turn the list archive
>>>>>> of the pydotorg-www list into a private one ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't think it's a good idea to let our setup information leak
>>>>>> to the Internnet via search engines.
>>>>> The *point* of pydotorg-www is that it is a public list. Private
>>>>> information should be sent to pydotorg not pydotorg-www.
>>>> I was only talking about the archives, not making it a private
>>>> list altogether.
>>> Sure, but losing public archives, and the ability to use search engines
>>> to search the archives is a big loss.
>>>
>>> We don't make the archives of other public lists private because someone
>>> sent an email they shouldn't have done - in fact we generally refuse to
>>> even remove those emails from the archive.
>> Right, but this mailing list is special in the sense that it
>> discusses an important piece of the Python infrastructure.
>>
>> Unlike other mailing lists where such leakage usually only has impact
>> on the one accidentally sending it, it can cause potential harm to
>> the PSF servers in case of this list.
> 
> Does the information leaked present a real risk?

If you look through the archives, it's very easy to find out about
the infrastructure setup being used to run python.org. Take e.g.
this thread as example:

http://markmail.org/thread/kcxkjbesmbweaaj6#query:+page:1+mid:kcxkjbesmbweaaj6+state:results

Thomas' email has revealed more information in that direction.
It's not a direct risk, though.

> I have a very strong
> preference for keeping the archives public unless we absolutely have to.
> I'd rather offending messages were scrubbed from the archive than the
> list archives made private.

That's not possible, I'm afraid, since the list archives on python.org
are not only being picked up by Google, but also other sites which
then co-host them, e.g.

http://markmail.org/search/?q=pydotorg-www#query:pydotorg-www
list%3Aorg.python.pydotorg-www+page:1+state:facets
http://www.mail-archive.com/pydotorg-www@python.org/info.html
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.pydotorg-www

>> BTW: How often do you actually search on this mailing list ?
>>
> 
> What I often do is browse the archives, having to log in is a nuisance.
> I also link to discussions on the list - making them private effectively
> prevents that as people have to join the  list just to view the
> archives. Occasionally when I can't find a particular discussion I use
> search to find it.

Well, then what do you recommend to keep such infos off the net ?

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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