On 5/24/05, Ian Greenhoe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 2005-05-24 at 23:15 +0200, Michelle Konzack wrote: > > Am 2005-05-24 13:28:04, schrieb Ian Greenhoe: > > > 3) Reject non-subscribed senders. > > Not acceptable. > The question here is what's less acceptable? A bunch-o-spam or not > having non-list subscribers be able to ask questions. I think that the > level of spam is annoying, but less annoying than having to have people > subscribe to the list. So, I agree with you, but I do not feel as > vehemently as you apparently do.
Requiring people to subscribe in order to post is worse than annoying. If a mailing list requires subscription to post, and I'm not generally interested in the list traffic, I won't post, because the list traffic is unacceptable. In the case of one software package I use, that's the only way of providing any feedback to the authors. Consequently, though I have suggestions for improving the software, I don't send them in. Similarly, to file a bug report for gcc, you have to sign up for a bugzilla account. I'm not going to deal with another account (and another password), just to gripe about silliness in g++. Your main avenue for communication with your user base *must* be open, or there's little point in making your software open. It can be a mailing list, a newsgroup, a comment address, or a web form, but if users have to join a "club" to contact you, you've done something wrong. -- Michael A. Marsh http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~mmarsh http://mamarsh.blogspot.com
