Harold Fuchs wrote:
<snip />
The problem with this approach is that unsubscribed users won't see any
message published to the list. And, of course, anyone subscribed to the list
probably knows the elementary stuff anyway.
That's a reasonable point but I bet there are plenty of "lurkers" who
read plenty before getting up the courage to post... (This is possibly
more true of the technical lists although still relevant IMHO).
I don't use many e-mail lists other than "read only" ones - newsletters and
the like. Is it normal for user to *not* have to subscribe before they can
post?
Yes, from my experience. Very few lists that I know (in fact I can't
think of others) allow posts from un-registered users.
This list almost encourages people to post without subscribing. Seems
to me that this is the main cause of the problem. The difficulty with
forcing people to subscribe is that it burdens the newbie with possibly 100+
messages per day consisting primarily, as far as s/he is concerned, of
dross. I for one don't think that's appropriate.
I kind of agree with you but... If the list was subscriber based, that
100+ would almost certainly drop ;-) The act of subscription could
provide the mechanism to ensure the new user is presented with the FAQ,
nettiquette, search tool and background to the who/what/why of the list.
I *do* see the dilemma here and am not trying to push any particular
solution - it is just since I started reading this list (via gmane) I
was amazed by the amount of repetition and unnecessary posts...
Alan
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