On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 12:12:39PM +1100, Alexar Pendashteh wrote:
> You received the email because you are subscribed to luv-announce mailing
> list.
Right. I subscribed to luv-announce, not to Electron Workshop's list.
This really shouldn't need to be said to anyone in the linux community, but
apparently it does now:
ADDING SOMEONE TO A MAILING LIST WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT IS SPAM.
I did not give permission to Electron Workshop to add me to their list and I
did not give permission to LUV to give my email address to any third party.
You may not think this is important but it is. The single most important
factor in the definition of spam is consent. If you ask for or consent to
receive email then it is not can not be spam. But if you did not ask for or
consent then it IS spam and can never be anything other than spam.
> The server that traditionally served LUV mailing list, had been abandoned
> by maintainers and we have been dealing with technical issues there. If you
> have relevant tech skills or know anyone, we can definitely use extra hands.
So, what you're saying is that something as trivially simple as running a
mailing list is too difficult for anyone involved in LUV? That is surprising.
> Meanwhile, we joined other local groups who struggle with similar
> challenges, under the auspices of Electro Workshop and using the resources
> that are provided pro-bono, and prepared a self-hosted community newsletter
> service.
This should have been announced on luv-announce and all subscribers offered
the opportunity to voluntarily subcribe to a new list if they wanted to, not
just subscribed to a new list without consent or even notification.
Especially when that new list is operated by people who lie and say:
"You’re getting this email because you gave us your email address."
This lie just adds insult to the injury of being spammed.
I did not give them my email address. LUV may misused my email address but
that is not the same thing, not even close.
And no, inconvenience to LUV or the risk that some might choose not to
subscribe to a new list is NOT an excuse, not a justification for spamming.
I probably would not have subscribed to a new list if it had been posted on
luv-announce, especially after checking out their web site and seeing all the
blockchain-related events, but at least I would not have been spammed. It
would have been something I could just ignore and not care about.
But, instead, I got spammed because somebody thought they had the right to
add me to a mailing list without my consent and now I have to suffer reading
yet another instance of the same spam-apologist garbage I've been seeing for
decades...and from someone representing an organisation that should know
better.
BTW, any claim along the lines of "but our spam isn't spam" will be laughed at
- I've been seeing that lie from spammers for decades too.
> The team behind LUV, is very approachable. Town Hall meetings (previously
> known as Main Meetings) have been running continuously and you are welcome
> to attend to learn about initiatives, raise questions or volunteer to
> assist.
>
> The need for feedback is as essential as the need for volunteer work. That
> said, this is a respectful community and we need to keep it this way. Hours
> of volunteer work go into making things happen, while we are trying to keep
> standards high as a team, as a community it is essential to be understanding
> or kind.
If you're aiming for high standards then you're going about it in entirely the
wrong way - spamming is bottom-of-the-barrel low standards
> To summarise, the email you have received is the luv-announce list with a
> new look and feel. You receive emails because you are subscribed to that and
Nothing in the spam I received mentioned luv-announce. Not the headers, not
the message body, nothing. Nor was there any prior notice about luv-announce
being terminated and a new list being created.
That spam was not from luv-announce, it is from a new and unrelated mailing
list that I was subscribed to without notice or consent.
I'll spell it out for you so it's absolutely clear:
* mail from luv-announce would not have been spam because I subscribed to
that mailing list many years ago
* mail from a list I did not subscribe to IS spam
> you can easily use the unsubscribe link in the very same emails, if you need
> to.
"You can opt-out after being spammed" is not a valid response. It is exactly
what all spammers say. Opt-out does not scale and, as everyone should know,
spammers can not be trusted - the most likely result from "unsubscribing" is
to get added to even more spam lists because you've just told the spammer that
the address is valid and actively used.
My policy is to NEVER unsubscribe from anything I did not subscribe
to. Instead I just add all relevant domains to my anti-spam blacklist - that
is quicker, easier, and far more reliable and effective.
> If there is any other question, I am more than happy to answer it here or in
> my personal inbox ([email protected]), while the communication is respectful.
Spam is not something that I am inclined to be civil about. Same for having
my Personally Identifiable Information (including my name and email address)
being illegally given to an unknown third party - again without my consent or
knowledge.
>From my perspective, disrespect was initiated by Electron Workshop - and by
you and LUV if you authorised them spamming me. You had no right to sign me up
to a new mailing list. That is actually worse than if they had just trawled
the LUV archives, you have betrayed the trust given to LUV by subscribing up
to LUV lists.
And now you're trying to tell me that it's disrespectful to complain about
being spammed!
> + Alexar
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 11:38 AM Craig Sanders via luv-main <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Who the hell is Electron Workshop, and why are they spamming me and
> > mentioning LUV stuff in Canberra (with URLs containing tracking codes)?
> > and adding me to their mailing list without my consent?
> >
> > And, worst of all, lying by saying:
> >
> > "You’re getting this email because you gave us your email address."
> >
> > I've never even heard of them before and certainly didn't give them my
> > address.
> >
> > And given that there's a lot of blockchain bullshit on their web site, I
> > doubt I'd ever want to have anything to do with them.
> >
> >
> > Did LUV give them my address? Or did they just trawl the LUV list
> > archives?
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