[Theforum] Re: [Content] E-mail Addresses in Archive

[Martin Burns]

(sent to theforum as it pertains to the Zen of evolt)

On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Dean Mah wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 26, 2002 at 05:40:24PM +0100, Martin Burns wrote:
> > On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, Dean Mah wrote:
> >
> > > On Sat, Oct 26, 2002 at 01:40:21AM +0530, Madhu Menon wrote:
> > > > At 01:29 AM 26-10-02, Dean Mah wrote:
> > > > >Out of curiousity, how do you contact john if the e-mail
> > > > >address is obscured like that?  If we do this across the board,
> > > > >some people might want their e-mail address to show up.
> > > > It's only in the archives. It's a trade-off. We don't have a
> > > > sophisticated membership management system like Yahoo, so we
> > > > make a choice. Regular members already have a copy of the post
> > > > in their email, so...
> > > ... if you are reading this from google and want to contact the
> > > author directly, you can't.
> >
> > If you're reading it from Google and aren't subbed to the list in
> > question, either
> > 1) You've chosen to be nomail so don't think seeing the addresses is
> > important enough
> > 2) You're not subbed anyway, so we shouldn't consider you as important as
> > those who are subbed.
>
> Interesting perspective.  I've always believed that we should be
> building community but also that we should be providing answers and
> support to everyone that needs it.

I don't disagree, but I think our first responsibility is to our current
members. One of the things our current members are pretty hot on is not
receiving unnecessary spam, so we need to strike a balance which still
provides some support for non-members while giving current members the
level of support they need.

To a certain extent, we do that already by blocking non-member posting to
lists, to keep our members' mailboxes free from spam. And we also allow
system-recognised members to see more info (eg recent comments)  and do
more (eg ratings) than anyone else.

That's not to say we completely exclude non-members, but the path to
getting that stuff is easy: register. Become a member - it's easy, and
free. If someone doesn't want to come to the party, then we don't have an
obligation to deliver beer to them. If they do, great - the fridge is over
there in the kitchen.

Cheers
Martin


---------------------------
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie