[thelist] how to set up a mailing list

BT Bigpant bigpant at btinternet.com
Mon Mar 4 08:48:00 CST 2002


I have been thinking about running a mailing list about audio recording for
some time, and having been inspired by your fantastic mailing list service,
I want to do something similar. If this is blatant copyright or if you are
unhappy with this, tell me, and I will do something else. I don't want to
tread on any toes, I just want provide a quality service for the recording
industry. So, if it's ok with you, I have a few questions. I will be writing
the whole thing myself in PHP/MySQL (which is half the reason I'm doing it
!).

With a list like this, how do you protect against viruses ? I understand
each email is passed to a script which dumps attachments and all MIME info
other than plain text. Is that all you need to do to protect against
viruses, or do you need to pass the email through anti virus software first
?

Also, what legal issues surround a list such as this ? Obviously, you are
storing personal data (email addresses); what responsibilities do you have
for this, and what clauses do you add to avoid problems ? How do you legally
protect yourself against emails (say containing viruses) that you send out
that harm clients computers ?

Is a disclaimer enough to protect yourself against flame wars and defamatory
posts that slip through ?
Can the list be subverted in any way, for use by paedophiles or terrorists,
for example ? How do you protect against this ?

..[am I being paranoid ?]..

What do find is the most time consuming aspect to running a list like this ?
This will be a hobby for me, so I want to know what I'm up against before I
start.

Phew ! I think that's it. Any other info would be cool, too.

Thanks in advance,

Phil Parker




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