Team AUR, As a recent resubscribe to this list and a new reader with increased motivation to work on the aur - anyone that subscribes to a mailing list needs to understand I think the following. I think they need to understand it because users are confused about how mailing lists work, and how old they are, and how old how to use them has been around. They are an underpinning of the culture. I think this is part of the confusion too: It could be argued that a footer could be added to messages to explain to folks how to unsubscribe also, but some folks who read thousands of emails a day, chose not to do that.
It is not acceptable to insult folks if they do not understand something. Education and sharing, and teaching have been a part of the culture for close to 50 or more years now. It is important to challenge people professionally: Please read this if you are curious, and want to get information out of folks better: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Also, most folks know that the world is in a political uproar, and countries have been trying to define the internet with law since it was invented, but please keep in mind that this is a global network. With all due respect, I cannot understand why the GDPR card was pulled here, but we want to stop continuing to build divides in the community. I think everyone can agree that world peace would be nice. We all love Linux, and we love the people that use it. Be happy and build :) Here is a quick explainer around mailing lists that everyone that has used the words mailing list should understand: Arch Linux Mailing Lists: How to Unsubscribe and a Little History ================================================================= The Arch Linux mailing list [email protected] uses GNU Mailman 3, a mailing-list management system with roots dating back to the 1990s. This is confirmed by Arch Linux's official announcement on September 16, 2022, when the project migrated its mailing lists from Mailman 2 to Mailman 3. Mailman has provided automated subscription and unsubscription management for decades. There is no need to send an email to every member of a mailing list asking to be removed. But this is not a big problem, and if you need help, some welcome it. This is a free world, built on free speech though so please take care to understand you are talking to free thinking humans. We have emotions, and opinions too. If you are having a bad day, please have a better one. If you have sent the correct unsubscribe email, then please inform the aur mailing list and action can be taken. HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE ------------------ To unsubscribe from aur-general, simply send an email from your subscribed email address to: [email protected] The subject and message body can be left empty. Mailman may send a confirmation email requiring you to confirm your request before removing your subscription. Alternatively, you can manage your subscription through the official Arch Linux mailing-list website: https://lists.archlinux.org/mailman3/lists/aur-general.lists.archlinux.org/ Many email clients also provide an Unsubscribe button using information supplied in the List-Unsubscribe email header. I am not sure how this works. A LITTLE HISTORY ---------------- Mid-1990s: GNU Mailman was originally developed. July 1998: RFC 2369 standardized the List-Unsubscribe email header, establishing a common mechanism for mailing lists to advertise unsubscribe instructions. That was more than 28 years ago. December 2002: GNU Mailman 2.1 was released. The familiar "-leave" email-address convention was documented in this generation. That was nearly 24 years ago. April 2015: GNU Mailman 3.0 was released, continuing support for automated subscription and unsubscription management. That was more than 11 years ago. September 16, 2022: Arch Linux officially migrated its mailing lists from Mailman 2 to Mailman 3. October 2026: Arch Linux continues to operate aur-general using GNU Mailman 3. WHY EMAILING THE ENTIRE LIST DOES NOT WORK ----------------------------------------- Sending a message with the subject "unsubscribe" or "leave" to: [email protected] does not initiate an unsubscribe request. That address is for distributing messages to subscribers. An unsubscribe request sent there is simply another public mailing-list message. The automated unsubscribe address is: [email protected] The distinction is important because mailing-list management commands are handled separately from ordinary list messages. You are interacting with software that is designed to save people time: The Unix way is to do one thing and do it well. REFERENCES ---------- Arch Linux's official Mailman 3 migration announcement: https://archlinux.org/news/arch-linux-mailing-list-changes/ Official aur-general mailing-list management: https://lists.archlinux.org/mailman3/lists/aur-general.lists.archlinux.org/ RFC 2369, The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2369 GNU Mailman: https://www.list.org/ Be well :) -WebDawg On Wed, Oct 14, 2026 at 9:47 PM Pasha Finkelshtein < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm actually pretty sure that according to GDPR there should be a way > to have my data removed if there is no legitimate interest to hold it. > So one could argue that each mailing list should provide this > opportunity. On the other hand, there is no strict definition of what > "simple" means, and probably the unsubscribe address is this > reasonably simple way. > > Best, > Pasha > > Pasha Finkelshteyn > Developer Advocate > Mobile: +49 1525 981-7123 <+49%201525%209817123> > Email: [email protected] > bell-sw.com > > > On Wed, 14 Oct 2026 at 09:24, Kaur Männamaa <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > Hi > > > > Thanks. However, I consider the manual unsubscribing a mistake. No > > requests made using such tone should be granted, particularly if to > > consider that the art of leaving a mailing list isn't exactly rocket > > science. > > > > I would have loved to see the 'complaint' made 'to the relevant > > authority' in this matter. > > > > If there have recently been technical difficulties that have prevented > > users from unsubscribing then that's another matter. Still, that would > > in no way justify the tone. > > > > Kaur > > > > 14.10.26 10:10 Jelle van der Waa kirjutas: > > > Hi, > > > > > > On 14/10/2026 09:02, [email protected] wrote: > > >> Hello, > > >> > > >> I have twice requested to be removed from your mailing list, without > > >> success. > > >> > > >> I ask that you immediately stop sending emails to [email protected] and > > >> confirm its removal. > > >> > > >> If the messages continue, I will mark them all as spam and forward my > > >> complaint to the relevant authority. > > > > > > I have manually unsubscribed this user, for any else wanting to leave > > > the mailing list simply mail [email protected] > with > > > anything in the subject/body as mailman ignores it. > > > > >
