RE: [Boost-Users] Subject: Poll results for Boost-Users

From: Tom Matelich (tmatelich_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-23 16:58:45

I asked the original question that sparked this, and its because (at the
root) I want to know whether feature requests need to be mirrored on the
main boost list.  So if I can be sure that the author of the library is at
least listening to my boost-users message, I don't have to CC him/her or
spam both lists.  That is why I wanted access to the members, and as a
support mechanism, why I thought it was important for boost-users.

I realize membership != reading the messages, so perhaps my point is moot.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim.Hyslop [mailto:jim.hyslop_at_[hidden]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 7:20 AM
> To: 'Boost-Users_at_[hidden]'
> Subject: RE: [Boost-Users] Subject: Poll results for Boost-Users
> 
> 
> Chris Little [SMTP:clittle_at_[hidden]] wrote:
> > When the question first came up of allowing members to view 
> the membership
> > list, one of the moderators started a poll (around the beginning of
> > January).
> That'd be me.
> 
> >  Unfortunately polling in this group is limited to moderators.
> > The moderators then decided to discuss the issue amongst 
> themselves and
> they
> > haven't reported back.
> 
> Hoo, boy, I seem to have dropped the ball on several counts here.
> 
> First, my apologies for not cancelling the poll after 
> discovering polling
> was limited to moderators.
> 
> Second, my apologies for not reporting back to the group on 
> the results of
> our discussion (I'm taking responsibility for this, since I'm 
> the one who
> opened the can of worms in the first place).
> 
> We identified a potential problem with spam email harvesting. 
> Granted, in
> the public pages emails are hidden, so that only the first 
> letter of the
> domain appears (my address, for example, would appear as 
> "jim.hyslop_at_l..."
> One of the moderators pointed out:
> 
> > About half of the email addresses on 
> > the first page start with either an a, h, or y. 
> > ... the problem is that when harvesting email addresses you 
> > don't need 100% accuracy. Just assume that a's are aol, all b's are 
> > bigfoot, all e's are earthlink, all h's are hotmail.com, 
> and all y's 
> > are yahoo.com. These letters are going to be [greater than] 
> half the list
> and you 
> > will be correct [greater than] half the time.
> 
> We could not come up with any compelling arguments in favour 
> of opening the
> list. I believe the best summary was:
> 
> > I'm not sure what the benefits of public membership would be.
> > Arguments such as "I need to know if X is a member of
> > the group" seem empty - this is a *mailing list* after all.
> > To access individuals, you should get hold of them in
> > other ways. If they are active members of the list, you'll 
> > still know they're members.
> 
> No moderators actually spoke out in favour of opening the 
> list up, so the
> status quo remains.
> 
> We moderators are, of course, open to suggestions, and if a reasonably
> strong argument comes up, then we will re-examine the issue. 
> If anyone feels
> strongly about it, you can either post your rationale here or 
> email the
> moderators at boost-users-owner_at_[hidden] (the 
> 'boost-users-owner'
> name is a bit misleading - email goes to all moderators, not 
> just to the
> owner).
> 
> Similarly, on the topic of polls themselves, the general 
> consensus was that
> if or when we identify a good reason to run a poll, then we 
> will open up the
> feature. Until then, there's no reason to change the status quo.
> 
> -- 
> Jim
> 
> 
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