[Mailman-developers] what to do with confirmation of web based subscriptions

Scott scott@chronis.pobox.com
Thu, 23 Apr 1998 21:05:41 -0400


On Thu, Apr 23, 1998 at 09:00:59PM -0400, Roy Smith wrote:
| > the only reason i can think of is that people don't want subscribing
| > to involve two steps.  i don't personally find this valid given the
| > nature of folks to abuse such services.
| 
| I agree.  The threat of prank mass subscription is real.  We've had it
| happen with lists we run here.  Not only is it, I would imagine, a nightmare
| to the person involved, but it's a real pain to the people running the list
| to sort out, especially when the victim starts to flood the list with "stop
| this!" messages.
| 
| I don't see any reason to not require a confirmation step by mail.
| 

there seems to be one case where a confirmation step might not be
necessary. if someone sends a request via mail to subscribe to a list
without requesting that an address other than the sending address be
subscribed, maybe that should be allowed sans confirmation.  it would
still be possible to do mass prank subscriptions, but much more
difficult. 

Scott