On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Peter M. Weiss +1 814 863 1843 wrote:
> Mailing list managers are just one of a host of facilities.  If you
> enable any automated facility, you open up a door.
 
I do not agree with this.  Each layer of protection you add will
discourage more and more people.  At some point, you reach what you feel
is a 'reasonable' level of protection.  There is no absolute guarantee
of protection on any of this stuff.  I'll bet if you make a list
Review= Owner it could still be reviewed by a really determined hacker.
 
Earlier I had proposed the idea of a new command, as an alternative to
the Review command, to enable you to search for one friends address.  I
now think it will not work.  I mean, I don't see how to limit it enough.
You would probably need wild cards to make searching effective, but if
you do that then they could ask for things like all *@aol.com users; so
they can still get lots of names.  You could limit the output to just a
few lines, but then you end up not finding your friend for the
legitimate requests.
 
It would seem that this question has 2 answers: make the list reviewable
for those that feel comfortable with review, and make it non-reviewable
for those that are worried about it (and so you ask the owner for help).
 
I have not seen any argument for either side of this question that
definitively supports one view over the other.  It seems almost like a
philosophical issue - a mix of one's privacy rights versus the 'urge of
information to be free' - all like the Interent itself.
 
Ultimately, most persons addresses are going to be publically known
anyway, I suspect.  One way or another, you are going to appear in someones
database.  Maybe it would be better for all if there was a single global
database of all email addresses, and you would be able to configure your
listing in a bunch of ways like whether your gender shows, your age, etc
(fee based, probably).  Mabye we need an organization online where you
could register your address if you do NOT want junk email; there is such
an organization in the 'real world' if you wish to reduce your junk
postal mail.  I used it but I forget what it is called; registering with
them did reduce my junk postal mail.
 
Finally, if all countries made is a misdemeanor to send out junk mail,
then it would go way down.  That is what happened with FAX machines in
the USA; junk faxes started to build up, and then a law was passed to
punish the senders - and now that situation is much better.
 
Kevin
 
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