[sf-lug] Possibly interesting data point on jobs postings

[Rick Moen]

Quoting jim stockford (jim at well.com):

> it is not my list, it's our list. i'm not the leader.
> when i get email addressed to the leader, i
> dutifully forward it to you guys.

The attitude counts for a lot.  It's worth noting, though, that to my
knowledge you're the only person wielding this list's Mailman
administrative access.  I sometimes use my site-wide Mailman admin
access to look in on it, and make sure everything's OK.

Also, to clarify, either (a) I manually set "nomail" on those four
subscribed addresses. a while ago, or (b) Mailman did so automatically. 
 
(a) One of the ongoing problems of mailing lists is that people subscribe
from addresses that that then, for a huge variety of reasons, become
non-deliverable.  You as the recipient of the
sf-lug-owner at linuxmafia.com administrative mail would get notices 
(DSNs = "delivery status notification" SMTP diagnostics)  wrapped inside
"bounce message" mails, in which sundry remote SMTP servers explain
cryptically or less so why a subscriber's list mail could not be
delivered.  I get a copy of each delivery failure notice as the
recipient of the root user's mail (I think).  When I observe failures on
local mailing list subscriptions that seem (by their indicated nature)
likely to be long-term, after a while I tend to manually set that
subscription to "nomail", mostly so I'm not buried in bounces every time
someone addresses the mailing list.  If further testing, some months
later, proves that such addresses are still undeliverable, I remove them.

(b) Separately, Mailman itself keeps a count of subscribers' "bounce count":
If it's too high within a given period, it _automatically_ sets the 
member to "nomail".  If bounces persist (of Mailman probe messages, 
or something?), it automatically unsubscribes the user.  I'm a little
vague on the full details of this, but you can review it in the mailing
list setup.

For the record, Jim has this mailing list set up as with no control
over who subscribes, publicly archived, and unmoderated (what is often,
somewhat vaguely, dubbed an "open list").  Automatic monthly password
reminders are disabled.  The roster is available to all list members,
but not otherwise to the wider public.  Posts from non-subscribed
addresses are held for listadmin approval.