Keith claims that allowing ``contributions from outsiders'' requires
delay and manual review. That claim is absurd. Immediately bounce the
message to the ``outsider,'' with instructions explaining how to have
the message sent to subscribers; end of problem.
Well, as long as the method for getting the message to the subscribers
(a) is simple and not onerous, and
(b) cannot be automated
then I'd probably agree that this is an acceptable solution.
I've seen lists for which the way that this was accomplished -
subscribing or getting on the "acceptable posters" list - involved
several email round-trips to get the address of the list bot,
get the help file, send a command, get back a cookie, send back
the cookie, find out that the list bot won't accept subscribe
requests and/or cookies from a different address than that for
which the subscription is requested, etc. Basically it amounted
to a considerable barrier to posting by outsiders.
These days, with a web interface, that level of complexity is
no longer necessary.
But if you make the process automatable spammers _will_ game it.
Keith