making SPI's public mailing lists subscriber-posting-only

[Ian Jackson]

Branden Robinson writes ("making SPI's public mailing lists subscriber-posting-only"):
> Would anyone object to changing the configuration of SPI's publicly
> archived mailing lists (spi-general, spi-www, et al.) such that only
> subscribers can post?

I think this would be an excellent idea and it should be done
immediately.

The downside is that some poor sod will have to fight the awful
Mailman moderation UI to actually delete the spams (and weed out the
odd real posting from a non-subscriber).

Bruce Perens writes:
[ `Your message is awaiting moderation' messages ]
> Mailman sends them those messages, yes. And it can send people whose 
> emails have been forged. Our only way to prevent that would be to 
> /require /SPF.

It is true that these messages are annoying.  But it is better to send
a backscatter message to one alleged-sender than to send the spam to
dozens or hundreds of list members.

Don't talk to me about SPF or I shall have to become very rude, and
anyway it's probably off-topic.

Ian.