On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Michael Richardson wrote:

:     Jim>     2.)  Gateways:  Several sites provide local mail-to-news gateways
:     Jim> for the NetBSD lists, which both reduces the amount of work the list
:     Jim> servers have to do, and helps users to keep up with the high volume of
:     Jim> lists like current-users.  If we had a members-only policy, users at
:     Jim> these sites would not be able to post questions to any of our lists.
: 
:   One can make a netbsd-nomail list, put that on the list of restrict_post. 
: I see no reason to have a per-list nomail list.

So posts to the newsgroups get bounced at the gateways until people get on
the netbsd-nomail list?  Not quite acceptable, as we have no idea how many
people or who read those newsgroups as opposed to the lists.

:     Jim>     4)  Try-before-you-buy:  I strongly suspect that if your average newbie
:     Jim> has to deal with the volume of current-users or even netbsd-users in order
:     Jim> to get help with an initial install, they are going to go looking for a
:     Jim> penguin instead...
: 
:   This has nothing to do with whether or not the lists are open or closed. 
:   What would be the point of sending messages to the list and never reading 
: anything from the list? 

How many times do you see posts to "netbsd-help" that start with the famous
lines:

"I have a question, and please copy all replies to me as I don't subscribe
to this list...."

:   Now, the list-owners will get deluged for a period with postings from
: non-members until these people subscribe to netbsd-nomail with the email
: address they are posting from. 

And, as (Charles?  Jason?) so eloquently put it, they'll just go look for
the penguin in the corner.  That's why restrict_post is so bogus in this
case.

If restrict_post were more robust in that it already had the ability to
automate netbsd-nomail such that a single post, bounced to the list by a
listmomma, would activate the e-mail address, I'd buy it - reluctantly.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)