[offtopic] Re: Recent spam surge...

[Alan Milewczyk]

On 08/04/2015 23:08, Simon Ward wrote:
>
> On 8 April 2015 21:50:01 BST, Alan Milewczyk <alan at soulman1949.com> wrote:
>
>>>> I've been a member of quite a few lists over my 20+ years on the net
>>>> and
>>>> all lists I've ever been on required you to be a member to be able
>> to
>>>> post to it.
>>> Are these the lists of the cabals, the elite and the brotherhoods? ;)
>> Uh? I take it that's an attempt at humour?
> In my experience most of these lists have been for "closed" groups, or those that have some issue with outsiders, hence the snarky remark.
The only issues I have with "outsiders" is with those who make snarky 
remarks, those who pick arguments and those who spam.
>> Anyway, I see no problem with
>> requiring posters to be members.
> I do. As someone else said it lowers the barrier to entry, and this is largely a support list. Why should everyone who ever uses get_iplayer, which is free software, be required to subscribe to the list just to ask a question? I know one retort for that, but I consider it off-putting to users and harmful to a community, which is "if you want help from us you must join in and participate and give back". That can be intimidating and unwelcoming for the uninitiated, regardless of its benign intention.

If I'm in a group, then I recognise there will be plenty of lurkers who 
don't "contribute", so what? My ability to contribute here is extremely 
limited (read practically non-existent). On the other hand there are 
groups where I am able to contribute actively due to my 
knowledge/skills/whatever. Big deal, it's the nature of the beast.

If I want to know something I'll quite happily join a group and if I 
don't see any mileage in continued membership (as in one-off queries) 
then I can always unsubscribe afterwards.  But I'd rather someone 
policed in the first place to stop the idiots and asking people to join 
is a useful step.

So I totally disagree with you, but I can't be bothered arguing the 
toss. I ain't gonna change my view!

A