[Linux-aus] About luv-announce: When is a mailing list "the same" or "different"?

[Les Kitchen]

Hello LA folk!

While this is of immediate relevance to LUV (as a subcommittee
of LA), it could have implications for LA more broadly, so I post.

I'm trying to step back a bit from the current discussions about
luv-announce, and identify what's really going on.

It seems that we have two divergent and strongly held views:

1. The mailing list sent out to by the current LUV team is still
   the same luv-announce list.  It consists of the addresses
   provided by LUV members to LUV so they can be informed about
   LUV events (and as the de facto indication of LUV
   membership).  The only thing that has changed is that mail is
   now being sent out using computing services donated by
   Electron Workshop, under the control of LUV.  So it is still
   in effect luv-announce.

2. The mailing list is now a different mailing list, and
   therefore addresses are being harvested (from luv-announce)
   without consent, which is a bad thing.

I and others hold to View 1; others hold just as strongly to
View 2.  Maybe there are intermediate positions.

I don't see any immediately easy way of resolving this, but I
think it is the crucial issue under contention.

I will say though (from my admittedly partisan position) all I
have heard from holders of View 2 is the assertion that
it's now a different list, and harvesting is happening.

What I would like to hear from holders of View 2 is a coherent
case that the list in question is a now a different list, and
*not* really luv-announce.

Is it because the list is running on different servers?  Is it
because the list server is under a different domain?  Is it
because the list server is running different mail software?  Is
it because the method of subscription is different?  None of
these seem particularly compelling reasons to regard it as a
different list.  As far as I'm aware nothing else has really
changed (aside perhaps from some minor and forgivable glitches
in set up.)

I acknowledge that "luv-announce" does not appear explicitly in
the new mailouts, but that could easily be fixed if people
thought it was a good idea.

As laid out in View 1, as I see it, it's the same list of email
addresses being used for the same purposes under the control of
LUV, therefore in effect still luv-announce.

I am curious why people think that it is somehow really a
different list from luv-announce.  I hope we can reach some
mutual understanding, and find a way ahead.  My feeling is that
some minor technical fixups in the current setup could resolve
most of these concerns.


— Smiles, Les.