On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 05:25:59PM -0500, Greg Schmidt wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Paul M Foster wrote:
>
> >
> > The real problem is that when they fill out the New Member Survey, they
> > have to _uncheck_ boxes to stay off the SLUG and SLUG Announce lists.
> > Most people probably don't even pay much attention to that. But the
> > point is that they don't have to do any work to get on the lists. OTOH,
> > I was always afraid that if they actually had to do work to get on the
> > lists, they never would, and we'd dwindle.
> >
> > Maybe I should rethink that.
> >
> When other web sites have that "opt-in to our spam" box checked by
> default, it bugs me. To me, it instantly flags them as untrustworthy. On
> the other hand, if I recall correctly, you're still not s*bscribed until
> you answer The Major's email asking if you _really_ want to subscr*be.
> So it is a bit far-fetched that someone would subcsribe completely by
> accident.
You'd be right, if they were just sending an email to majordomo
themselves. However for New Member Surveys, it works this way: Checking
those boxes and hitting the "submit" button sends an email to me.
Fetchmail pulls down my mail once a day (aside from the several times I
do it manually at night). Fetchmail hands the mail to procmail, which
recognizes it as a New Member Survey. It feeds the mail to a script that
generates a set of majordomo commands to subscribe the user as needed.
Because that email is coming from me and has the appropriate passwords
and such, there's no confirmation needed.
However, that creates another wrinkle. Since this doesn't happen except
when my mail gets pulled down, it can happen that someone fills out the
survey and then immediately tries to send an email to the list. Of
course, since my email hasn't cycled yet, it bounces.
<snip>
> It seems that slug-announce
> gets less than 4 messages a month. The main slug list gets 15 to 25 but
> can spike to over 50 on busy days. Folks who are used to 3 or 4 emails a
> week among their family and friends might find that overwhelming.
This is absolutely true. A lady sent me an email the other day, just
overwhelmed by the SLUG list volume. I thought to myself, "Lady, you
oughta be on the Debian list. Now _that's_ volume!"
<snip>
> > Fortunately, the people on this list are a little more tolerant than
> > most. ;-}
>
> I have found this to be a great newbie list. When someone does need to
> Read The Fine Manual, they are usually pointed to which parts of M are
> most important to R and given some useful tips and tricks on the side.
> I commonly see people who obviously really know their stuff taking the
> time to answer what must, to them, be very basic questions. They do so
> in a polite, informative, and sincere manner. Sometimes, they go research
> someone else's problem and report what they found. Sometimes, they give
> hints about how to look for solutions. (Give a man a fish. --- Teach a
> man to fish.) They do all this for FREE. The real gurus don't hang out on
> this list to gain valuable information. They're here to give it away to
> people like me.
>
True, and many thanks to those who take the time to patiently help. We
have an excellent crop of very knowledgable and patient gurus on this
list.
And after all, that's why we're here. The geeking that goes on in
meetings is nice, and part of the deal. But the assistance is really the
whole point.
Paul
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