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

Scott scott@chronis.pobox.com
Mon, 27 Apr 1998 16:20:55 -0400


On Mon, Apr 27, 1998 at 11:07:15AM -0400, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
| 
| >>>>> "S" == Scott  <scott@chronis.pobox.com> writes:
| 
|     S> i'd like to make it impossible for a
|     S> person to subscribe some other unconsenting person to a
|     S> mailling list.
| 
| ...while still allowing someone to subscribe to a list using a
| perfectly valid alternative address.  Scott, I haven't seen your
| patches, but I know that other ML managers handle this in a useful
| way.  They will send a confirmation email to the alternative address
| that contains a partially random string.  The user need only reply to
| the message and include verbatim this string.

that is exactly what the patches do.  there's still some problems
synching the patches with the distribution, but this functionality is
what my copy of mailman is doing right now.

| This seems like a small hurdle to impose given the important nature of 
| this defense.  A small explanation included with the email (along with 
| a link to a detailed Web page) would go a long way to easing any
| inconvenience.

it's all there, except the link to a web page, which sounds like a
good idea.

thanks for the feedback.

scott