Re: Topica-Dot-Com Open For Business

[Rich Kulawiec]

On Thu, Feb 25, 1999 at 04:07:08PM -0800, SRE wrote:
> I haven't formed an opinion of topica.com yet, but it seems you are
> doing it "opt out" in spite of what you posted earlier today. That's
> sort of an agressive strategy, isn't it?

I concur.  I'm rather annoyed that topica appears to be implementing
a web-based subscription interface *whether or not the owner of the
mailing list wants one*.  I find this offensively presumptuous.

I further find the mechanism which allows a subscriber to submit
a mailing list unacceptable.  Subscribers do not have the authority
to make any decisions about mailing lists: only their owners do.

And still further, I find the use of an opt-out mechanism unworkable
and yes, quite spam-like.  It is crystal-clear that opt-out mechanisms
do not work because they do not scale, and they should not be used
by responsible service providers.

I don't like what I'm seeing here at all.

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]