(Note: Folks from the volunteer list have been BCC'd directly; apologies for
any duplicates.)
Hello all,
Tux 2010 is ready for action. On behalf of the board, I would like to
enlist your help with a few tasks, and some feedback:
(1) Mailing list moderation: We are looking to set up a moderation team.
This is more a matter of an ongoing minimal commitment of time more than
technical skill. Mainly it involves checking your e-mail regularly for
notices, logging in to an administration area when messages are waiting, and
approving or rejecting them based on their content. This helps to keep our
lists free of spam and inappropriate messages.
(2) Mailman setup and migration of archives: One of the next steps is
moving over our mailing list services. We're looking for folks who are
familiar with Mailman, and can help migrate our current Mailman mailing
lists and archives to the new server.
(3) Spam filtering considerations and implementation: We are currently
outsourcing our spam filtering to Roaring Penguin, a service called CanIt.
This was kindly set up and monitored by Dave O'Neill a few months ago, and
is working quite well. Previously we were using SpamAssassin, which had
also worked very well for a number of years, but the version we were running
became badly outdated and began to allow some spam through to the lists.
The problem was not a technical one, but rather one of human resources.
Initial setup is always more appealing and attracts more attention than
maintenance, so it's harder to allocate human clock cycles for the latter on
an ongoing basis.
It has been suggested that since we'll be moving to the new server,
this is a good opportunity to reflect on our spam filtering methods. Brett
Delmage recently encountered an issue where accidentally breaking the
anti-spam headers related to the CanIt filtering, caused the content of his
messages to disappear. Dave has generously offered to reconfigure this if
we provide him with a complete list of all list addresses (that is, all @
lists.oclug.on.ca and @oclug.on.ca addresses) so they can be set to omit the
anti-spam voting links. However, Brett has also pointed out that cleaning
up the disorganization could make this ongoing maintenance easier and even
unnecessary, and make for less hassle and error on an ongoing basis. One
idea being considered is to reinstate our use of SpamAssassin, but install
it through the package manager so that keeping it up to date is simple and
straightforward. As long as it is up to date, we can expect similar
performance to years past. Continuing to use CanIt requires management of
an additional login to handle this portion of the moderation. Either Canit
or SpamAssassin may occasionally require tweaking by those familiar with its
configuration. The main consideration here, given the human factor
mentioned above, is to make ongoing maintenance simple enough that most
ordinary members can do most tasks if given the recipe. This would help
make more sets of eyes and hands available to keep things running smoothly.
So, we'd like your feedback: Would CanIt or SpamAssassin offer a
simpler way to do our spam filtering, and why? (Dave, do you wish to
specifically comment on this?) Lastly, would you be willing to do setup and
configuration on the new server, and/or ongoing maintenance?
(4) Acceptable Use Policy implementation: Unmitigated wiki edits have the
potential of embarrassing the group. We need ways of verifying the identity
of would-be editors and having verification that they agree to acceptable
use terms ("do no harm," etc.). In the past, we had Web of Trust meetings
for GPG keys with passports and such. Do we know the current status of this
initiative? It looks like it has been in disuse for some time. Some other
suggestions have been:
AUPs signed with a digital signature, or alternatively, printed, signed,
then scanned. This would avoid a buildup of dead trees to be filed.
Obtain an "I agree" by e-mail, and confirm in person at meeting or by
phone with a person we know (web of trust).
Other ideas?
We could use one or more of these in combination to cover all our
bases. Obviously, it needs to be as easy as possible for folks to do, while
still ensuring that we know who they are and that they agree to the terms.
Thank you in advance for your help and ideas.
Best regards,
Lisa