[Linux-aus] Electron Workshop spam

[Les Kitchen]

Hi Erik (and other LA members),

On Tue, Feb 3, 2026, at 10:13, dvalin--- via linux-aus wrote:
> On 03.02.26 09:26, Russell Coker via linux-aus wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 3 February 2026 08:26:26 AEDT Brian May wrote:
> > > Seems fixing the problem - and offering assistance to fix the problem -
> > > might be more useful then pointing fingers.
> >
> > The main problem is that they harvested the addresses from another list and
> > continually refuse to change their behaviour in that regard.
> 
> In contrast, I'm pleased that some vestigial contact with
> local Linux remains, after I was arbitrarily unsubscribed from
> luv-main, apparently by some automaton, on the spurious basis
> of "a number of bounces".
...

There has been a lot of discussion about this, I must say.  I
tend to agree with Erik and Brian May and Andrew Pam on this.
Yes, some things could have been done better, and certainly
could have been better explained.  But the newish LUV team have
kept LUV going, and have put in a lot of work to put LUV on a
more up-to-date and more sustainable footing, especially with
regard to communications.  For that they deserve our gratitude.
What they need is support and constructive feedback.  The
failings such as they are come largely from inexperience, I
think.  (I'm saying "LUV team", because to me it's not clear
whether LUV, as a subcommittee of LA, has a formal committee
structure like it used to.)

Most important, there is no "they", and there is no
"harvesting".

As I understand it, all that's happening is that the
luv-announce mail is now being sent from Electron Workshop
infrastructure under the control of the LUV team.  LUV members
provided their email addresses to LUV to receive announcements,
and that's just what's happening.  It's the same list on
different servers.  Nothing sinister is happening.

(I note here that Russell Coker posted to luv-main that it
seemed that Electron Workshop was sending to several mailing
lists.  I wasn't able to reply there, but I'll take this
opportunity to point out that LUV has access to other mailing
lists.  Those I'm aware of are the Software Freedom Day and
Linux Regional Summit Gippsland mailing lists, which are
distinct from luv-announce, though overlapping.  (Both those
events were run by LUV, SFD jointly with Free Software
Australia.)  It's reasonable to take the position that people on
those other lists would also like to be informed about those
relevant Canberra events.  And it's also reasonable to keep
those lists distinct — that is not merge and deduplicate them —
even if it means that some people receive multiple messages.)

Electron Workshop has a long history of supporting the local
FOSS community and kindred groups.  I posted about this to
luv-main last week.  (My post didn't bounce, but it never
appeared on the list — at least I didn't receive it.  I still
have to chase that up, but it may be indicative of problems with
the old LUV mail infrastructure, where luv-main and other LUV
lists still live, as Erik alluded to.)

But, in short, Electron Workshop provided their co-working space
gratis as a meeting venue at various times since around 2012 for
FSM (Free Software Melbourne), Software Freedom Day, and a bit
for LUV, as well as for other groups like EFA (Electronic
Frontiers Australia).  Since the co-working space closed in
2021, Electron Workshop has shifted that gratis support into the
online space.  If you look at the URLs, all the online LUV
meetings since around then have been on Electron Workshop's BBB
(Big Blue Button) video-meeting server.  And since May last
year, mail for luv-announce has also gone out from Electron
Workshop servers.  I was suprised that so many people seemed to
be unaware of this connection and support for LUV.

And for people invoking the Spam Act: I think that is rather an
over-reaction, stemming I can only think from ignorance, and is
quite unhelpful.  I am not a lawyer, I have not read the entire
Act, but from my reading it seems that technically the Act does
not apply anyway to communications from an association to its
members.  (LUV may no longer be an incorporated association, but
I think it still would be regarded as an unincorporated
association as a subcommittee of LA.)

Put another way:  The mail to luv-announce is not really coming
from Electron Workshop.  It's coming from the LUV team using
infrastructure generously provided by Electron Workshop.

I hope that the above will help to calm people's fears.


— Smiles, Les.