Re: duplicated messages and NYLXS cross-posting

[Daniel Pocock]

On 16/02/2020 09:43, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    Is FSF censoring gnu-misc-discuss and other GNU lists and are these
>    other things an attempt to circumvent that?
> 
> The FSF is not handling moderation of GNU project mailing lists, nor
> is there any censorship going on here anymore.  The list _is_

I noticed some of my own posts to this list were delayed, sometimes by
many hours

> moderated but that is to get rid of very nasty and obvious garbage --
> the majority sent by a single person who is the one who setup the
> ghost list.  Since they are constantly trying to subvert any means, it
> has meant that things pass through slowly, and sometimes garbage
> sneaks through.  
> 
> I suspect that people are also simply confused as to which list is
> which, making it look all crazy.

That may be the primary intention of some people.  Some users end up
unsubscribing from all the lists when confronted with too much garbage
and confusion.

>    Can there be a more efficient way to achieve this?
> 
> Since the GNU project isn't in control of the ghost list, we can't do
> much to address that. :-( Do you have any suggestions on how to tackle
> this? 

The first thing is transparency.  It is useful to document factually,
not politically, what has actually happened.  E.g. foo was censored, foo
forked the list, how many people have copies of subscriber data,
unsubscribe links for each list.  This can be written without taking
sides or blaming anybody.  Most users can decide for themselves how they
want to proceed.

Users who control their own mail servers probably have tactical
solutions they can use, e.g. /etc/postfix/access

Mail filters can also be used.  For example, telling the filter to match
on certain things in the Received headers.

Strategically, both the censorship that started the problem and the
attempts to work around the censorship are both faults that need to be
addressed at a high level, it raises questions like:

- what is the best way to build an electronic communications platform
that is de-centralized, without gatekeepers/censors/moderators but also
not susceptible to abuse?

- taking a step back even further, can and should free software
communities operate without discussion lists or any mailing lists?

Regards,

Daniel