[Mailman-Users] Cannot set digest mode via URL

[Brad Knowles]

On Aug 29, 2010, at 9:59 AM, Todd Zullinger wrote:

> I'm not arguing that if a distributor patches Mailman and changes core
> behavior to the point that it causes confusion for users and
> potentially sullies Mailman's reputation that it's fine and should be
> left alone.  Just trying to see what grounds on which you want the
> lawyers to complain.

Oh, and for me, it has nothing to do with sullying our reputation.  It has much more to do with crippling our ability to support our customers, because experience has taught us that many of these vendors want to ship code without providing any of the actual support costs.

If they're going to externalize onto us (a non-profit, unpaid, volunteer organization) all of their customer support costs for this part of their commercial package that they may sell for large sums of money, then as I see it they owe us one of two things:

1.  Payment of money and other significant physical resources to provide the customer support that they are unable or unwilling to provide themselves

2.  At least contribute all their code changes back to us so that our additional cost is minimized to support all their customers that they are unable or unwilling to support themselves

Otherwise, in my mind, they are quite literally stealing from the community, and they should suffer the criminal and civil court consequences.


This is not to say that all vendors necessarily want to externalize all their support costs onto us, but that there are significant numbers of vendors who want to ship sewage out the door and put a hefty price tag on it, and they do everything they possibly can to make sure that none of their customers can come back to them and actually receive adequate support for the effluent that was delivered.

In those cases, the collateral damage to the community is a very real cost that we all have to bear our part of, just so that the company can make good on their get-rich-quick scheme, which they perpetrate at the expense of everyone else.

--
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>