[Mailman-Users] what constitutes spam?

[Mark Sapiro]

Anne Wainwright wrote:
>
>As an aside, I have to ask whether the 'invite' feature in Mailman has a
>function. If one has to have been in existing contact such that you can
>ask them if they would not object to an invite then one is in fact at
>the point where you can ask them point blank if you can subscribe them. 


My cycling club has a general discussion list for which subscription
requires approval because it's limited to club members. If a new or
renewing member checks the "I want to join the club's email list" box
on the application form, we send an invitation. This avoids the
problem of subscribing the wrong person or an invalid address to the
list because of typos or unreadable handwriting (yes, we still accept
snail-mailed forms with checks, although it's not our preferred
method).

Even when a club member emails the list owners asking to join the list,
we sometimes send an invitation rather than just subscribing if we
think there's a possibility the email was spoofed.

I'm sure there are other use cases where invitations rather than direct
subscriptions are appropriate/prudent.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan