[Mailman-Developers] before next release: disable backscatter indefault installation

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Jo Rhett writes:
 > On Mar 4, 2008, at 9:27 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
 > > You see, as Jo Rhett points out (apparently without understanding), it
 > > will have *no noticable effect* in the short run because *the proposed
 > > change won't affect existing Mailman installations*, not even those
 > > that upgrade to 2.1.10.
 > 
 > I understood.  I'm trying to stem the flood of new installations that  
 > have this feature.

Pure bluster.  You have no data about "floods of new installations",
and the window to a properly-tested 2.1.11 *for this change only*
would be about 3-5 months, depending on code and template
contributions and how important Mark and Barry think it is, and
whether they're willing to push 2.1.11 out with few translations.  This
window for 2.1.10 is not going to add significantly to the backscatter
from existing <2.1.10 installations.

 > >   Then you can even discuss shutting off the feature
 > > in *existing* installations and requiring admins of *existing*
 > > installations to reactivate the feature if they want it.[1]
 > 
 > Huh?  How exactly are you going to shut off the feature in an  
 > existing installation?

1.  By fiat from the ISP, eg as you threaten to change your AUP.  This
would be most likely to well-received by ISP clients if combined with:

2.  At upgrade time to say 2.1.11, a variable `enable_auto_reply' is
added to Defaults.py, and set to false.  Since no existing mm_cfg.py
will have "enable_auto_reply = True" in it, this (along with the
implied changes to the code, of course) would shut off the autoreplies
for *every* existing Mailman installation that upgrades.  This will
not be feasible with your proposed change to 2.1.10.

 > Sorry, as stated your proposal sounds either naive or insane.

No, just radical and unlikely to be implemented.  But if implemented
it will do one heck of a lot more for the backscatter problem than
panicking as you propose we do.