This newsgroup (comp.lang.python) may soon be blocked by Google Gro
Tim Golden
mail at timgolden.me.uk
Fri Feb 9 03:49:57 EST 2018
On 09/02/2018 05:00, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Feb 2018 23:40:57 +0000, Mark Lawrence wrote:
>
>> I don't see any spam in my inbox as I read on gmane, I'm pointing out
>> the disgraceful state of gg and why it should be dropped as it's less
>> than useless.
>
> Who is it that you think should "drop" Google Groups?
If Mark means: the mailing list gateway should automatically drop posts
originating from GG, then this wouldn't really buy us anything we don't
have.
I think it's unlikely that anyone still following this thread isn't
aware of the situation, but just in case:
We have a newsgroup (comp.lang.python) and a mailing list (python-list)
which are mirrored to each other by virtue of the Mailman gateway (ie
the mailing list handles both sides of the mirror).
Google Groups offers a mail & web interface to the newsgroup
Gmane offers a newsgroup interface to the mailing list
The newsgroup is entirely unmoderated and unfiltered
The mailing list is moderated and filtered in different ways:
* We block (hold or discard) mailing list posts by subscriber
* We block inbound usenet posts by header (usually sender email but
also, eg, ISP)
* We have a Spambayes instance running which injects a spam score header
and we block on that header
* We have a few other more specific filters in place for various issues
which have arisen over the years
By and large, this combination of filters, coupled with the work of the
moderation and postmaster team, is enough to keep the list "clean" of
manifest spam and so on. Obviously, the first instance of spam might
slip past all our filters, in which case we're on the back foot and have
to react. On the whole, though, we catch most things.
So dropping GG altogether would probably not add very much, as we're
generally blocking undesirable posts from there and we'd rather not
block genuine posts which happen to be made through the relative
convenience of the GG interface.
Can I call out for thanks here the people who have worked behind the
scenes for quite a long time to keep this list running smoothly,
including: Skip Montanaro who manages the Spambayes setup; Mark Sapiro,
the Mailman 2 dev lead who looks after all the python.org Mailman2
instances; Ralf Hildebrandt who acts as Postmaster; of course Barry
Warsaw who created Mailman (and this list, I believe) and still
contributes when we need to discuss matters as list owners; of course
Ethan Furman, my fellow list moderator; and doubtless others whom I've
forgotten. The fact that the list continues to be readable and useful is
down in large part to them.
TJG
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