On Tue, 19 May 2015 15:33:16 +0100 tom petch <daedulus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > It's a shame. The value of the reminder was not the password, but a > confirmation that I was still subscribed to the lists that I thought that I > was subscribed to, and had not been unsubscribed due to some dark art of the > mailing list processes - which has happened to me on more than one occasion. I once worked alongside a team that found themselves supporting a particularly unreliable system. For a reason that I've now forgotten, this team decided to create a test to verify the system was still responsive and send out an alert via a paging system if it was still operational. This was run every hour, twenty-four hours a day. I thought this was a ridiculous situation and when I conveyed what was going on to a witty friend, this friend equated it to how one might use the emergency system (911 in the U.S.). "So... I should call 911 every hour and say to them, 'I'm OK, just letting you know. If you don't hear back from me in an hour please send help!'". I can't help but think the use of a mailing list password reminder is in a way similar to my exaggerated example. As another colleague once told me, don't look at it as a "backup" problem, look at it as a "restore" problem and your whole perspective, and likely your solution changes to better address the challenge you're faced with. There may be another, perhaps better way to solve this particular problem. :-) John