Requiring list subscriptions (was Re: [Fwd: Gain Organic Traffic: Freebsdish.Org :PS])

[illoai at gmail.com]

On 4 March 2014 21:25, John Johnstone <jjohnstone at tridentusa.com> wrote:
> On 3/4/2014 4:13 PM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>>
>> Dear mail list owner,

> I've been subscribed to mailing lists for quite a few years but only to just
> a few lists so perhaps my experience overall is quite limited.  The FreeBSD
> mailing lists are the only ones I've come across that have the policy of
> "anyone can post".  I was stunned to discover that you could post to the
> FreeBSD mailing lists without being subscribed.  All other lists I've
> encountered have the policy of "only subscribers can post" with the obvious
> intent of keeping out spam.  Their thinking is also "ask here" and "get an
> answer here".  I'm curious to know what percentage of mailing lists today
> allow posting by non-subscribers.
>
> Although I've only been subscribed to this list for about a year I don't
> recall ever seeing spam that wouldn't have been stopped by requiring
> subscription to post.  Has there ever been any spam to this list that used a
> forged subscriber address?

Hi!

Sorry, I hope not.  This list (freebsd-questions at freebsd.org) has been
this way for a long time, despite the spam problem. It is a newbie list,
and most spammers are rejected soon enough (generally after one
post) that it hardly matters, so the requirement to subscribe seems a
tad onerous to some barely-hatched FreeBSD-er who wants to ask a
question without having to sort through a veritable fire-hose (okay, the
lists have slowed down significantly since the late 1990s & early 2000s,
but there's still plenty of traffic).  In any case, not all of the lists are
like this.

It has been discussed a great many times in the last couple of decades,
as well, so I am adding an apology for adding to the noise level here:
sorry.  I doubt the official policy will be changing soon.

Tertiarily (point-wise), I get more spam from having my address harvested
from the archives than I get on-list.  It's annoying, but it's part of the non-
obvious price of otherwise free tech support.

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