[Buddha-l] Make the subscription list visible to subscribers?

[JKirkpatrick]

Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 12:33 PM


Dear denizens,

A subscriber has asked me about the possibility of making the
buddha-l subscription list visible to all subscribers, as it used
to be in days past. I have prowled around the dark subterranean
passageways of Buddha-l control tower and discovered that there
it is possible to set the subscription list to one of three
settings:

	Visible only to the administrator (the default setting)
	Visible to all subscribers
	Visible to the entire universe, including God

I think the third of those settings would be unwise, since it
would allow outsiders to "harvest" our subscription list for spam
jockeys. I have no opinion about the second option, so I seek
your wise counsel. The only information I have to offer at the
moment is that if a subscriber really does not want to be visible
to anyone but the administrators, it is possible to hide his or
her subscription from view. So even if the subscription list were
visible to all subscribers, those who wished not to be visible to
others could opt for individual privacy. (As for as I know, it is
not possible to hide from the administrators of the list.)

Let me know what you think, either by responding to this message
and discussing it with other subscribers, or by sending a message
to buddha-l-owner at mailman.swcp.com. I'll check the archives in
about a week to see whether a consensus has emerged among the
denizenship.


Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes
rhayes at unm.edu

______________________________
I'm in favor of option 2. 
The old list used to list subscribers by their email addys, a
truly helpful mode. Since 2 would not open the list to spammers,
it wouldn't matter, except to those who want obscurity and who'd
be granted it. 
Occasionally I used to write privately to a list member-- say, to
a person who is way more knowledgeable than I am but who never
posts anything-- to make an inquiry about some Buddhistic matter.
Restoration of the list of subscribers would enable such queries
again. 

JK







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