[AktiviX-discuss] mailman size limits

[mark]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Hi people,

I'm administering the list dfs3 at lists.aktivix.org and some subscribers
are finding it difficult to understand why they can't send large
attachments.

As it's an educational project, I thought I should write a short blog
piece to explain why, and how to share files better. Please can people
eyeball this to check I'm not about to give out incorrect or outdated
information?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

<<
To publish at:
 network23.org/dfs3

Title:
 Using Shared Resources Effectively: Mailing Lists

Body:
 The internet has a lot of services that claim to be "free" in the
sense that you don't have to pay up-front to use them. These are
mostly funded by advertising revenues from the websites and by selling
information about how we, the users, behave on the internet.

 Some people are trying to run services that are different to this.
For example, the blog you're now reading is funded by donations (link)
and run by volunteers. For anyone who's idea of "free" extends beyond
not having to pay up-front; to include things like not being under
permanent surveillance and not having your attention to adverts sold
as a commodity; this seems much better.

 However, making a switch from corporate services to ones that are
free in a more profound sense requires us to change the way we use the
internet in ways that aren't always obvious.

 Let's look at mailing lists as an example. If you're used to using
google groups or yahoo lists, you'll expect to be able to send large
files as attachments. These will either be forwarded to everyone on
the list; or stored on a server, the contents analysed for what kind
of advertising to show alongside it, and a link to it's web address
put in your email, which when you click on it monitors that you're
interested in that kind of stuff. In either case, the money to run the
service comes from corporate marketing budgets.

 When you use a service that's funded by donations, the situation is
different because there isn't a huge budget to pay for all the network
traffic created by the above approaches. And even if there was, it'd
still be better to reduce the amount of work the machines have to do,
as it all uses energy, and besides, isn't it a good thing to be aware
that you're sharing a resource with other people, so you'll only take
what you need?

 The way this plays out with the Mailman free software which powers
dfs3 at lists.aktivix.org is that message sizes are limited to 40KB by
default, which means no big file attachments. So what should you do if
you want to show everyone on the list the file you've created?

 First things first: in line with our focus on Free Software, you
should always try to share files in open formats. Not only does this
increase the likelihood that people will be able to read it properly,
open formats are also likely to mean smaller files with the same
amount of useful information.

 Then, think of a place on the internet where you can upload your
file. This could be a blog, a wiki, and etherpad, a personal web page
(some ISPs give you one as part of your bundle), or even a dedicated
site for network organising like we.riseup.net . Upload the file you
want to share, and make a note of it's URL.

 Now when you write your email to the list, you can paste in that URL
instead of attaching the file. When people get your email, only the
people who really want to see it will click on the link, which saves
on network bandwidth, and downloaders will all click at slightly
different times, meaning there isn't a big peak in demand at a single
time.

 Have you found any other ways of sharing your files? Share your ideas
using the 'comments' function below.
>> 
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Icedove - http://www.enigmail.net/
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=WJKw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----