[Linux-aus] How the council breached their constitution - membersregister request section 7

[Mark Foster]

On 19/12/2022 1:32 pm, Adam Nielsen via linux-aus wrote:
>>> Given that https://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus
>>> states that "*The subscribers list is only available to the list
>>> administrator*", this does not feel like an OK for you to have
>>> done, and it's not obvious how you gathered this list, unless you
>>> just sought anybody who had contributed to the list over the past X
>>> years.
>> Deliberately publishing the personal information of a large number of
>> people, without consent, in response to a thread explicitly
>> describing concerns with such disclosure, is at best immoral. It is
>> inflammatory and designed to cause upset. I can see no justification
>> for it, and it demands a swift and serious response.
> I certainly agree with the sentiment, however it is worth pointing out
> that the list archives are public[1] and anyone can scrape all e-mail
> addresses from them with only a few minutes' work, even if they are not
> a member of the list.
>
> Recently Elon Musk has been in hot water for banning the Twitter
> account that posted flight details of his private jet.  Apparently the
> ban was considered inappropriate, because the flight details are
> available to the public on other web sites, so all that was done was
> re-posting already public information to Twitter, for which that person
> was banned.
>
> If all Daniel has done is re-post public information here, then it
> seems that a ban may be overreacting?  Unless of course you are
> focusing on the moral aspect instead.

The down-side of an large open-CC recipient list is that everyone's 
details are now in everyone-elses's mailboxes.

It just makes us all that much more likely to become future victims of 
malicious actors, when one of us inadvertently gets phished and their 
mailboxes are used for finding personal information, more victims, etc.  
As opposed to the mailing list, which - though archived and public - 
makes this a little more difficult and operates in a way that is fully 
transparent to everyone in the group.

Through Daniel's actions I now have, in my email box, the direct email 
addresses for a stack of people I don't know personally, in a context I 
did not request or welcome.... and though you could argue that when one 
participates in a public forum, one essentially opens the door to this 
sort of thing... it's, quite frankly, rude, and provocative.

This whole thread (situation) is unnecessarily pedantic is not helping 
ensure that LA remains a friendly and accessible community. If anything, 
it's doing the opposite.
And i'd support the move for disciplinary action to be considered, as a 
consequence.