People with a valid interest in Permaculture *do* occasionally turn up without any prior acquaintance with anyone on the list. And unless we're discussing stuff of a much more personal and intimate nature than 98+ percent of the posts on here would indicate, there's really no justification to turn this into a "buddies only" list.
And some people get righteously annoyed if, while attempting to subscribe to a list like this, they get asked, "Who are you and who sent you?" And won't answer, and I think rightly so. Because it's none of anyone's business.
Mailman *will* let you set up subscriptions so that a person has to verify their email address, by responding to an autobot mail, before their sub becomes active. This process will screen out spambots and the like, and requires absolutely no moderator intervention.
If you're concerned about people acting in non-friendly manners toward one another, then Mailman lets you send a Welcome message.
Work out a basic code of conduct - "rules for the commons," as it were - and let people know that one violation will get them warned and a second might get them removed. I have samples of things like this floating around that work exceedingly well on other international and regional Mailman-hosted lists, available upon request.
Since you're asking for opinions, that's mine. Switch over to auto-verifying of email addresses, come up with a set of "rules for the commons" that people agree to follow as a condition of being on the list, and just deal with the occasional fugghead as they crop up.
It's the "remove individual unwanted plants (weeds) when they crop up" approach, as opposed to the "pre-emergent herbicide" approach, IMNSHO. And "letting the system do the work for you."
Just my $0.04, adjusted for the price of oil.
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