Re: Poll: Should mhonarc.org mail archives hide mail addresses

[Earl Hood <earl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On January 2, 2004 at 20:16, Chuq Von Rospach wrote:

> which needs to be traded off against the problems of not hiding those 
> addresses. That we might choose to publish our addresses among 
> ourselves as members of this list doesn't mean we have to post those 
> addresses on the front door for any random person to access, and 
> limiting access to those addresses so that non-members can't access 
> them doesn't mean access has to go away for members as well.

Basically, it comes down to informed choices.  I've tried to note
in the documentation that posts to the lists will be displayed in a
public manner and that address hiding/masking techniques may *not*
be employed.  Therefore, if a person is concerned about making their
address available, they can send questions to the private address
contact instead of the list.

Right now, I do not know what the stats are of people who have decided
to not post to the list because of the public nature of the archives,
hence the poll, which people can respond to me via private mail if
posting is a problem.

BTW, Net users should be aware that posting to an open list is
making a public post.  The technical nature of the Net makes it
possible for anyone to archive a list, as has been done with mhonarc.
Wrt mhonarc, there are only two "official" set of archives, the ones
at mhonarc.org and the ones at mail-archive.com (mail-archive employs
address obfsucation methods).  However, I have noticed that others
also have archives of the user's list, and I have no real control
over those archives.

Therefore, when I post a message to any list, I basically make
the assumption that the message may show up on the Net somewhere.
The consequences of posting to a list is similiar to post to Usenet.
If a poster wants the best insurance of protecting their address when
posting to a public mailing list, they will have to protect their
address within the message itself.

> I don't see many people posting their cel phone numbers on their home 
> pages, but that doesn't preclude you from giving it to people you know. 
> Keeping your phone number frmo telemarketers and keeping your e-mail 
> address from the spammers are suprisingly similar actions, except we've 
> generally always been circumspect about phone numbers and open about 
> e-mail addresses. Times change, however...

The analogy fails since the mediums are different.  Phone calls can
always be tracked back while email cannot, hence the push by some to
change the mail transport protocols to provide better tracking.  Also,
others cannot "hijack" your phone and make automated calls from it
(yet).  This cost issues are completely different between the phone
system and email.  Law enforcement procedures are different, with
the phone system allowing for easier enforcement compared to email.

Phone numbers are also used to help identify someone, like for
customer-business relationships.  Email addresses do not.  I.e.  It is
known that email addresses can be spoofed, so one cannot guarantee
the identity of someone unless something like PGP is employed.

--ewh