On Tue, 19 May 2015 15:33:16 +0100
tom petch <daedulus(_at_)btconnect(_dot_)com> wrote:
It's a shame. The value of the reminder was not the password, but a
confirmation that I was still subscribed to the lists that I thought that I
was subscribed to, and had not been unsubscribed due to some dark art of the
mailing list processes - which has happened to me on more than one occasion.
I once worked alongside a team that found themselves supporting a
particularly unreliable system. For a reason that I've now forgotten,
this team decided to create a test to verify the system was still
responsive and send out an alert via a paging system if it was still
operational. This was run every hour, twenty-four hours a day.
I thought this was a ridiculous situation and when I conveyed what was
going on to a witty friend, this friend equated it to how one might
use the emergency system (911 in the U.S.). "So... I should call 911
every hour and say to them, 'I'm OK, just letting you know. If you
don't hear back from me in an hour please send help!'".
I can't help but think the use of a mailing list password reminder is in
a way similar to my exaggerated example. As another colleague once
told me, don't look at it as a "backup" problem, look at it as a
"restore" problem and your whole perspective, and likely your solution
changes to better address the challenge you're faced with. There
may be another, perhaps better way to solve this particular
problem. :-)
John