Span in the lists

[Valeri Galtsev]

On Sat, March 5, 2016 11:50 am, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Mar 2016 18:02:47 +0100
> Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
>
>> Are there maybe other situations where "no registration required" is
>> an important feature to have?
>
> 	Pure and simple ease of use, there are a lot of FreeBSD mailing
> lists, some of them very specialised.
>
> 	If I have a question or report appropriate to one of those then
> with the current conventions I can pop a mail to the list, expect to see
> the replies (reply to all is the convention) and not be bothered with
> anything else on the list but the one thing that drove me to seek contact
> with specialists.
>
> 	Going the other waY I'd have to susbcribe to the list, do
> the validation dance, send my question, see answers and all the other list
> traffic and eventually I'd have to unsubscribe. It's not a lot of work -
> but it's a big multiplier on sending a single email - especially if the
> reply is "try the guys in $otherlist".
>
> 	The current system is maximally convenient for the person who wants
> one-off access to experts. To me that seems to be the correct model for
> support mailing lists.
>
> 	Spam is the risk - and has been noted the incidence is low. I
> presume there are some very good spam filters on the list.
>

Yes, indeed, this all makes sense. Originally my opinion was the same as
that of OP of this thread (need to post: subscribe). But then I changed my
opinion, basically, deciding the FreeBSD mail list owners have their
reasons. This what you describe makes these reasons clear and transparent.
I have subscribed to several specialized FreeBSD mail lists, and in
addition to useful instructive posts and answers, I also receive "bug
reports" and similar "as assignee to the bug" which some of mail lists are
- assignees to bugs. So, I know exactly what you mean when you are saying
subscribers may get something they actually don't want to receive. (I
personally don't mind receiving that, so I keep being subscribed, and
learn from some, and just ignore other posts).

Anyway, I decided to chime in as an outsider who originally had the same
opinion as OP (original poster) of this thread, but then changed my
opinion, and decided: FreeBSD mail list owners _do_ know better, so I
better live with what they have.

Valeri

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Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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