[UbuntuWomen] Non-members posting! [was] Re: Fwd: [Blueprint community-1311-ubuntu-women] Ubuntu Women Trusty Goals

[Penelope Stowe]

Even though this is not a new discussion, I do think it's worth revisiting
from time to time. I can't remember the last time it was discussed so it
can't have been very recently.

Here are my thoughts on the main options:

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 9:01 AM, Alex Muntada <alexm at alexm.org> wrote:

>
> These solutions have been proposed:
>
>  S1. enable the moderation queue instead of discarding non-member
>      posts on ubuntu-women list and bring more volunteers to help
>      with moderation if needed;
>

I think this is the best option. Yes, it takes more people, but that's not
necessarily a bad thing. It's a way to get more members involved in Ubuntu
Women and I really don't think it hurts to have a larger group of eyes
checking on messages sent by people not on the mailing list. I don't think
finding volunteers to help moderate is going to be hard, either. Moderation
queues for non-member e-mails is how the majority of mailing lists operate.
It has some practical reasons for being popular. Not everyone who wants to
post to the mailing list has necessarily gone through the mailman page and
seen the warning. The "contact this team" on the launchpad group has the
mailing list as the contact e-mail address (I don't know how long this has
been true, but it's not new). Having it as the contact e-mail is completely
useless if e-mails from people not on the mailing list can't actually post
to the list. It makes sense to use the mailing list for contact because
then answering doesn't fall to one or two people (and more people means
more chance of someone knowing the answer). Finally, we would be able to
make sure announcements of CFPs and outside events made it to the list. It
wouldn't make sense for those organizations to be joining every list they
send their CFPs to. We are most likely missing quite a few as things are
now.


 S2. keep the discard non-member posts policy and encourage people
>      to subscribe to ubuntu-women list with NOMAIL option;
>

I know this is technology-wise the answer that requires the fewest people
and time. I worry, however, about turning people off when their e-mails
don't get answered and they don't know why. People who are shy or
non-technical may not be comfortable trying to then put in the work to
figure out how to actually post, especially if it's just a single question.

If we were to keep the mailing list to automatically reject all non-member
e-mails (without a moderation queue), would there be a way for an automated
e-mail to go to non-members who try to post to the list? That could have
the info about how to join the mailing list and/or contact the list
moderators about getting an exception. It still adds extra steps for people
who are new to Ubuntu Women and/or are just sending a question or
announcement, but at least they'd know their e-mail was rejected.



I really do think moderation for non-member posts to the list is going to
be the most beneficial to Ubuntu Women overall. We're far less likely to
miss legitimate posts that way. Keeping spam off the list is important, but
it is at least as important to be welcoming and take every opportunity we
can to spread knowledge of Ubuntu Women and women in F/OSS.

~Penelope
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