Re: mailing list moderation

[Hans Aberg]

On 11 Mar 2006, at 01:50, Karl Berry wrote:

> Thanks for the answer.
>
>     RMS wants GNU lists to be open to non-subscribers, I think,
>
> You are most definitely right, but this does not imply that mail from
> anywhere has to be passed on.  My original message implied that people
> would have to subscribe to post, I see now, which I didn't intend.
> Sorry about that.
>
> Anyway, mailman has a simple and effective way to handle it, namely to
> hold requests from nonsubscribers.  A human can then approve the real
> messages.

This is a poor solution, as it causes delays. I have encountered a  
couple of such lists. And one cannot sign up on all lists.

A good spam filter, the way I suggested, is better (see below).

> That's where the moderation comes in.  Would you have any
> time to help?

No, I have no attachment to this list, except as a end-user. I just  
replied because I happen to have this idea. :-)

> It amounts to a couple of minutes a day.

And a problem with your moderation method is that it requires more or  
less permanent watching of the list. By contrast, I check the spam I  
get only every couple of months.

> We are already doing this now for dozens of lists.  The work  
> involved is
> minimal, since we have a background system that autodeletes most of  
> the
> spam (and there are checks for real messages being wrongly  
> identified as
> spam, etc.).

The thing that makes spam truly annoying is if one has to spend time  
on it frequently, like you say, a couple of minutes every day. With  
my system, I spend less than ten minutes every couple of months.

  Hans Aberg