ibiblio services/changes announcement list

[Cristóbal Palmer <cmpalmer AT metalab.unc.edu>]

Greetings ibiblians,

== Executive Summary ==

  * If you don't run a mailing list with us, please ignore
  * If the mailing list you run needs to accept non-member mail,
    please contact us: http://www.ibiblio.org/help
  * We're changing the default behavior for mailman mailing
    lists. Non-member posts will now be discarded by default
  * The change will happen on MONDAY 17th MARCH 2008, that's
    this coming Monday.


== Full Text ==

The default behavior for mailman mailing lists on versions 2.1.9 and
earlier is to "Reject" posts from non-members. This means that for
some janedoe AT example.com who does NOT belong to a list, say
webgroup AT lists.ibiblio.org, if Jane sends mail to
webgroup AT lists.ibiblo.org she'll get a notice email sent back to her
saying that she is not allowed to post.

This is a problem because it allows someone who has forged the sender
address to use the mailing list server as a reflector, causing our
mailing list server to send out what is known as "backscatter" spam to
an innocent bystander.

For this and other reasons, we're changing the default behavior to
"Discard" for all of our lists. We're going to make this change the
morning of MONDAY 17th MARCH 2008. If you have questions or concerns,
please contact us before Monday.

To be totally clear, unless you (a mailing list administrator) contact
us, we WILL set your list so that the variable
generic_nonmember_action is set to 3 ("Discard") on Monday, regardless
of what it is set to right now.

As a mailing list administrator, you should NOT need to take any
action. This default SHOULD be good for the vast majority of you. Some
of you, however, may be running moderated mailing lists which allow
posting from non-members after moderation. If that sounds like you,
please contact us so that we can leave your mailing list out of this
change.

Thanks,
-- 
Cristóbal Palmer
ibiblio.org systems administrator