advocacy/89731: TOO MANY SPAMs on jp.freebsd.org's mailing list

[John Baldwin]

On Nov 30, 2005, at 3:20 AM, Takeo Hashimoto wrote:

> The following reply was made to PR advocacy/89731; it has been  
> noted by GNATS.
>
> From: takeo at ss.jip.co.jp (Takeo Hashimoto)
> To: jhb at freebsd.org, postmaster at jp.FreeBSD.org
> Cc: freebsd-advocacy at freebsd.org, hashimototakeo at mac.com,
> 	freebsd-gnats-submit at freebsd.org, takeo at ss.jip.co.jp
> Subject: Re: advocacy/89731: TOO MANY SPAMs on jp.freebsd.org's  
> mailing list
> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:12:09 +0900
>
>  Hi all.
>
>  # Sorry from another 'from' address,
>  # but I am the sender of advocacy/89731.
>
>  On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:28:31 -0500
>  John Baldwin wrote:
>> On Tuesday 29 November 2005 12:36 pm, Takeo Hashimoto wrote:
>>>> Description:
>>>
>>> there are too many spams on jp.freebsd.org's mailing list.
>>> - newbie can not find any kind of know-how from ML archive site.
>>> - almost expert user are disappointed at miserable state of  
>>> community.
>>> - oldie does not think about mass happiness.
>>> - once you post article to lists, spammer get your address from  
>>> archive.
>>> - waste network traffic and server resource.
>>> - distinct honor of "FreeBSD is a freedom for spammer"
>>
>> Note that FreeBSD.org doesn't administer the services on  
>> jp.FreeBSD.org.
>> Instead, jp.FreeBSD.org is delegated to a separate group that  
>> manages all of
>> the resources for jp.FreeBSD.org including DNS, mailing lists,  
>> etc.  You need
>> to contact the folks there via postmaster at jp.FreeBSD.org.  Note  
>> also that
>> spam is an unfortunate reality and that there is only so much that  
>> a public
>> mailing list run by volunteers in their spare time can do.
>>
>> --
>
>  I know that jp.FreeBSD.org is just one of sub domain
>  of FreeBSD.org, and FreeBSD.org doesn't administer it,
>  and FreeBSD.org doesn't have a fault about this.
>
>  But spam damages FreeBSD own honor.
>  I think that this is a whole FreeBSD problem, and
>  I think that only FreeBSD.org can make jp.FreeBSD.org change.
>  # so I did send-pr.
>
>  Of course I know the admins of jp.freebsd.org are busy.
>  I respect thier volunteer mind, but sorry to say,
>  the way admin do it is arbitrary.
>  I think transparency and democracy is necessary
>  for a decision on will, like a core team.
>
>  OK, we can protect our mailbox by some filter. but spam
>  pollutes ML archive (on the web) and spammer can get more
>  reachable addresses. That is not an individual problem.
>  that is a matter of ML management policy.
>  and it should be changed to get happiness of the majority.
>
>  Admins are volunteer, and they don't have much time,
>  so we have to search the solution which get the biggest
>  effect by the minimum cost.
>
>  I think "restrict_post" is the answer.

If you do this for all of the mailing lists then someone has to spend  
their volunteer time wading through the blocked e-mails to send on  
the ones which are valid.  This means that someone new to FreeBSD  
will likely have their questions lost because the e-mail will never  
make it to the list (e.g. freebsd-questions) and would make it that  
much harder for new people to get help getting started with FreeBSD.   
Adding restrict_post actually is a lot of work on the admins since  
someone has to handle all the bounced e-mails.

-- 
John Baldwin <jhb at FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve"  =  http://www.FreeBSD.org