>I believe there are ppl who basically construct unwanted archives by >subbing to lists and archiving material as it comes in. this they sell on >to ppl who might be interested. > >i had a request to form an archive on my list. as our listserv already >provides a good archive interface, i didnt see the need for another, and i >wondered what was "in it for them". they were cagey abt that - presumably >not wanting to own up they would offer them to others as well. i turned >them down. > >apparently some ppl go ahead and archive lists anyway. do we know how >common this is? are there any known "pirates" whose addresses i can check >for? i guess there's no way i can tell if an address is like this generally. > >Pete Watts True, but what you can do is make it very difficult for such people to get those addresses even if they are from the the archives. Obviously, you can screen people before you add them to your list to see that they really suit your lists guidelines. This may be more work for some lists than others depending on the size of the list and the turnover of the list subscribership. For my list, where turnover tends to be very minimal and the subscribership is very small, this is not an issue, but I can see where it might become an issue if a list had significantly more subscribers. My list archives are all set to Private. Thus, the only people who can look at the archives are people who are already subscribed to the list, and people that I have full confidence in being there. I see no other way to really deal with the scenario you are talking about. Glenn