spam smackdown?

Wed Oct 28 19:10:47 UTC 2015

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 3:03 PM, Patrick W. Gilmore <patrick at ianai.net> wrote:
> 3) Anyone who feels this is so frickin’ bad it is unbearable, and
> knows they could do SO MUCH BETTER themselves, should
> volunteer for the Communications Committee. Otherwise,
> everyone should thank the unpaid volunteers for their gracious
> and excellent work day after day, year after year. Or just STFU.

Yes, yes, the volunteers are all wonderful people and can I get a
hip-hip-hooray. Nevertheless, before I "STFU" I would politely suggest
that volunteering to perform a function for which one is not prepared
to put in the needed effort is generally worse than not volunteering
at all. Volunteering blocks other would-be volunteers for the same
effort. Even if there are no other volunteers, it prevents the
function from being farmed out to a paid service with the appropriate
diligence and expertise.

I would urge the current volunteers to careful consider whether
they're willing and able to put in the exceptional effort and
commitment of time and availability needed to competently operate a
mailing list server on today's Internet. Failing to halt a spam flood
in a timely manner does not exhibit a reasonable level of commitment
to the task.

One simply can't walk away from a mail server for a couple of days any
more. Even volunteer efforts require the kind of monitoring and
on-call rotations we all use in our professional lives.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>