-----Original Message-----
From: owner-spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com
[mailto:owner-spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com]On Behalf Of Mark
Shewmaker
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 7:05 PM
To: spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com
Subject: [spf-discuss] Re: FW: spf-help mailing list archives should be
public
On Wed, 2005-01-12 at 10:20 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
I can do that. I've also found a searchable archive that someone has
already put together that munges the addresses. Based on Meng's
comment, I
think I'll look into that before I 'flip the bit'.
Don't forget how the mxcomp archives have a serious problem with hidden
email addresses--you can not use it to follow a lot of the detailed
technical discussions because the various example addresses are all
unreadable.
And of course it also has the standard problem with hidden mail
addresses--even non-spamming individuals can't contact the senders of
any messages directly, unless they happened to be subscribed to the list
when that sender sent the message.
(I've always generally disliked email munging that merely transforms
addresses to something not quite as easily machine-readable, on the
grounds that spammers will eventually learn to read these munged
addresses anyway, but I'm very much against any style of munging that
completely removes or covers email addresses.)
So, I hope that if you *have* to do any email munging, that the full
addresses are still understandable by humans.
--
Mark Shewmaker
mark(_at_)primefactor(_dot_)com
The problem I am trying to solve is that the listbox interface to the
archives is VERY difficult to search to see if a question has already been
answered. I believe that this is one reason why we see a lot of repeats on
spf-help.
I don't believe that I can make any changes to the archived messages on
listbox, but a little time with Google revealed a number of places the list
was already publicly available. Looking through them, I found:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/spf/help/
It appears to answer most if not all of the objections to a munged/public
archive and is key word searchable. My plan now is to ask them if they mind
us adding a link to their archive in the subscription confirmation and at
the bottom of the messages. If they are OK with that, then I'll modify the
subscription confirmation to say something along the lines of, "Before you
ask, search here and see if your question has already been answered". It's
also probably a good link for spfhelp.com.
I did check and the e-mail addresses in the body of the messages (i.e. the
examples) are unmunged and you can get a human readable version of the
e-mail address so you can contact people.
The listbox archive would remain unchanged. The goal is to spend less of
our limited available time answering repeat questions so that there's more
effort to put into new ones.
Scott Kitterman