[Linux-aus] Electron Workshop spam

[Russell Coker]

On Tuesday, 3 February 2026 10:13:36 AEDT dvalin--- via linux-aus wrote:
> > 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".

That's an ongoing issue with mailing lists.  Email is Balkanised by the 
different choices regarding anti-spam measures.  So when (not if) a mailing 
list passes through email that some servers (correctly or incorrectly - 
usually incorrectly) consider spam then people get unsubscribed.

You are correct that something equivalent to luv-main is needed.  In the old 
days there was enough mailing list traffic that having separate lists for 
discussing random Linux issues made sense.  When you exceed a certain number 
of list members the number of duplicate answers due to email lag becomes 
excessive and the benefits of having more people to increase the probability 
of a good answer taper off when a certain number of people are present.

Now the email traffic from all Linux users in Australia who want to discuss 
things on mailing lists can fit on this list.  If you look through the 
archives of this list you will see discussions on similar topics to luv-main.

https://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo

A quick scan of this page suggests that the majority of lists on this server 
could be removed due to lack of traffic, maybe with the archives moved to an 
obsolete lists page.

It seems that most of the discussion that used to happen on mailing lists now 
happens on Matrix.  Have you considered getting a Matrix account?

Also in the old days questions about how to install Linux etc all went to luv-
main while nowadays people tend to use a web forum run by the distribution 
they are using.

> The email address, in use for a couple of decades has received hundreds of
> thousands of list mails, and continues to reliably do so. OK, the sloppy
> luv chop happened back in October 2024, and the crappy system might have
> been improved since. I have no way of knowing.

In about 2022 I quit doing anything noteworthy in terms of LUV sysadmin and 
have just kept the VM ticking over ever since.  For reasons that are probably 
similar to mine no-one else wanted to work on it.

> While my reaction is "whatever", Brian's focus on fixing problems is
> constructive, and more conducive to list survival as more and more go
> moribund these days.

Neither Brian nor anyone else in this discussion has actually focussed on 
fixing problems, Brian and some others have stated that it would be good to 
have problems fixed but have not volunteered to do it.  If Brian wants to work 
on the LUV server he can email me his ssh public key and I'll give him root 
access (I've known Brian for more than 30 years and worked with him on several 
occasions).  If you want to work on it then we can have a chat about that, the 
process wouldn't be as quick as it would for Brian but it's definitely an 
option.

If Brian wants to work on the Electron Workshop stuff then I'm sure they will 
be happy to work with him, but AFAIK he has not volunteered for such things.

Also there has not been any mention of plans for a general Linux mailing list 
similar to luv-main by the Electron Workshop people, just the luv-announce 
list.

-- 
My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/