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Re: [Asrg] 6. Proposals - depracate all list/bulk mailing and change to RSS

2003-11-28 15:48:35
On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 05:30:10PM -0500, Yakov Shafranovich wrote

Mailing lists and USENET groups work with email. When someone responds 
to a mailing list, he does so via email. Two questions stick one: (1) 
Are there utilities for mailing lists today that interact with both 
email and RSS, including MUAs; and (2) what happens if a spammer sends 
spam to the list, it still clogs up the list.

  I didn't make myself clear.  I propose that list members still email
*TO* lists, but that the lists *NOT EMAIL TO THE LIST MEMBERS*.  The
members would pull (poll?) the list-server.  The bottom line will not
change for legitimate lists, except that the list members would pull the
results.  This could be any of several methods... nntp, RSS, reading on
a web-board, whatever.  One positive side-effect is that pull feeds
wouldn't suffer from aggressive spam filters.

  The obvious question this raises is why bother if it's not going to
really change the final result for legitimate lists.  The problem is
that legitimate mailing lists, including this one, provide plausible
deniability, and a figleaf of respectability to the Yesmails, Topicas,
and E-Dialogs of this world.  They can claim that people subscribed to
their mailings just like we subscribed to this list.

  There are some legitimate clients, but the big mailers are effectively
open relays for anybody who walks in with a check and "Millions CD".  I
do not believe that the commercial e-mail-blasting industry can be
reformed to legitimate opt-in.  They have a financial incentive to
accept money from anybody.

  Once there are no more legitimate mailing lists, then *ALL* broadcast
mailing lists will be known to be illegitimate, and can be safely
blocked.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes(_at_)waltdnes(_dot_)org>
Email users are divided into two classes;
1) Those who have effective spam-blocking
2) Those who wish they did

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