[AktiviX-discuss] [AktiviX-users] list-admins: Changes to lists.aktivix.org subscription process

[mp]

On 13/03/10 14:07, Ian Gregory wrote:
> Personally I don't think "bulk subscribe" or even "bulk invite" have any
> place in a mailing list manager. I take a dim view of anyone or any
> organisation that attempts to subscribe me to any list and I would never
> subscribe anyone to a list I managed. Subscription is (IMHO) something
> that should always be left to the subscriber.

Much as I sympathise with this view, most meetings that I have ever
attended unfolded in this way, when it came to lists:

1: Should we make a list (unless it already exists)?, and, when the
anser is yes,
then,

2: A piece of paper goes round and people put their names and emails on it.

3: You receive an email that you have been subscribed (as you requested
to be). As a matter of fact I have never heard anyone say: "That is not
how (anarcha-)hackers do it!"

So, is it really Aktivix's business to change the way in which meetings
usually go? Perhaps, but then maybe there should be a manual in how to
use mailing lists in "the right way" together with the AUP that list
admins have to agree to also.

In a sense Aktivix should be careful not to be betraying one its own
principles - (non-)vanguardism - by rejecting groups and processes that
are not sufficiently technologically literate - or at least try to
educate people, rather than just take a "dim view of them."

In any case, "bulk invite" should be a fine compromise, but the fact is
that there a lot of people who want to use email and be on lists who
have no flippin' clue about how it works and wouldn't be able to
subscribe themselves or be afraid of doing it the wrong or whatever.


-mp