mailing list privacy, etc.

Sat Apr 16 11:13:01 UTC 2022

I agree.
All the lists I run is basicly set up the way you suggesft.
Someone on this list said the configuration was changed for security/spam 
avoiding reasons, but I do not believe that it makes any difference 
regarding that. 
Kind regards, Willem

On Sat, 16 Apr 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I concur with Ratislav said, quoted below.
>
> I have checked: all other mailing lists to which I am registered hide neither
> the identity nor the email address of the sender. This includes several followed
> by blind users an developers:
> brltty
> cblx
> debian accessibility
> fenrir-screenreader
> orca
> speakup
> speechd
> stormux
>
> Generally, in the archives the email is either partially hidden or re-written.
>
> So, my proposal is:
> 1) Display the full name with the email address in the headers of messages
> posted by the list.
> 2) Allow to use a pseudo instead of the name when registering.
> 3) Do not display verbatim the email addresses in the archives.
>
> I was about to send this proposal to blinux-list-owner at redhat.com, but I
> would like to know if there are major objections or other proposals or
> modifications suggested before I do that. Rewriting welcome, English is not my
> native language.
>
> Didier Spaier
>
> Le 15/04/2022 à 19:51, Linux for blind general discussion a écrit :
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I wasn't on this list when the mentioned spam incident occurred, but I
>> experienced a similar thing on another mailing list, with basically the
>> same attack scenario, except my address was getting subscribed to
>> newsletters and other mailing lists.
>> 
>> Given quite a few of them were unavailable in EU, repeated unsubscribing
>> was quite an operation.
>> 
>> 
>> But except the drag of cleaning things up, there was not much else to
>> deal with. The list administrators have removed the problematic
>> addresses, and everything was fine again.
>> 
>> 
>> In this regard, I view the current list privacy policy as unnecessarily
>> overprotective.
>> 
>> It would make sense, *if* Blinux list was the only mailing list the user
>> is signed in, or if significant amount of the other-ones were doing the
>> same thing.
>> 
>> 
>> But what is the reality?
>> 
>> The reality is, that I'm signed up in 9 different mailing lists right
>> now (and the number was even higher in the past).
>> 
>> And Blinux is the only-one of them hiding the eMail addresses in
>> communication.
>> 
>> 
>> If a spam wave were to attack, there are plenty of other attack vectors
>> than this list.
>> 
>> 
>> And I'm likely not the only-one in a similar situation. I suppose a
>> considerable part of this list is also on the Orca mailing list, and
>> many, many other communities have their own, where the users may be
>> registered.
>> 
>> 
>> If someone is concerned about spam waves, they may consider using a
>> separate address or address alias for mailing lists, which they can
>> discard if necessary.
>> 
>> 
>> Hiding addresses on the list not just makes communication highly
>> inconvenient, as you can't address people, and neither observe their
>> behavior and identify the ones with... say lower assertivity skills, but
>> another issue is private communication.
>> 
>> There are situations, when you need to ask or tell a person something
>> that is off-topic for the list or contains private information.
>> 
>> 
>> In such cases, asking for a contact and exchanging addresses (even the
>> single address), raises far more attention and space than a simple
>> private thread reply would.
>> 
>> 
>> Thus, if the spam source was removed back in the days of the incident,
>> I'm definitely for turning the names and addresses on.
>> 
>> 
>> And if the incident repeated, we could also very well just move the list
>> to a different provider, with stronger sign up security measures. There
>> are many to choose from.
>> 
>> 
>> Best regards
>> 
>> 
>> Rastislav
>> 
>> 
>> Dňa 15. 4. 2022 o 0:14 Linux for blind general discussion napísal(a):
>>> If we get spam, which I mean that happens regardless, from
>>>> online account leaks of your email address, to going on dubious sites and
>>>> submitting your email because you got a text saying you won $500, spam is
>>>> gonna happen. If your mail provider, or mail server, or email client, can't
>>>> deal with spam, usually by you marking an email from a sender as spam and
>>>> the program automatically marking further messages from that sender as spam
>>>> too, then that's a problem with your setup, not the list.
>>>
>>> You were not here when this happened, so you are not understanding the
>>> problem that occurred. Every time anyone would post a message to this
>>> list, that person would get inundated with hundreds of pornographic spam
>>> messages, not all from the same sender, and even the major email
>>> providers like Gmail and Yahoo couldn't keep up. Hundreds would come in
>>> to one individual's mailbox, and 30 or more would survive all the spam
>>> filtering thrown at them. I wouldn't say that the problem was with the
>>> list itself, or even with its administration, but I do know that it
>>> wasn't bad spam filters that were to blame. Yes, spam will happen no
>>> matter what. It's just part of email. But this was truly out of control
>>> and something had to be done quickly to fix it. I'm not necessarily
>>> arguing that this measure still needs to be taken in this way even now,
>>> but it was the best solution at the time.
>>>
>>> ~Kyle
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Blinux-list mailing list
>>> Blinux-list at redhat.com
>>> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>>>
>> 
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>
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