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Re: BerkeleyLUG - list: "New member posts are moderated" - should I/we change that?



Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu):

> In checking over the BerkeleyLUG list
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/berkeleylug
> a bit, I noticed the current setting:
> New member posts are moderated
> Should I/we change that to:
> No posting restrictions for new members.

Depends.  IMO, admin setting of this toggle is a tactical concern.

New members being unmoderated results in minimum listadmin bother, which
under normal circumstances is desirable.  However, in the exceptional
case, a mailing list (or Google Group) is plagued by one or more
problematic participant seeking to evade being banned or put on
moderated status by also joining from additional throwaway subscription
addresses.  In that exceptional case, in my experience toggling on the
'New member posts are moderated' setting is an effective countermeasure.
(If possible, make sure posters are _not_ notified when postings are
held for listadmin review, so that your administrative tactics are
rendered more difficult to figure out.)

When I've used that setting in Mailman (temporarily) during a deluge of
abusive behaviour, I most often uncheck the 'moderated' tickbox for a
poster when manually approving roughly the first or second post from
that address, as the poster has then given sufficient evidence of not
being just another sockpuppet of a banned/restricted participant -- but,
again, it's in your interest to not have your patterns in this area of
mailing list administration publicly known or 100% consistent, so as to
make it more difficult for The Inevitable Ones to work around you.

In my experience...

> That may also risk some spam / inappropriate posting(s)

...spammers don't join mailing lists.  There are reasons (omitted here)
why they are reluctant to navigate the required three-way handshake
confirmation.

Semi-exception:  A subscriber who is careless with webmail security 
(e.g., MS-Windows malware or falling for a phishing scam) may well have
his/her webmail account compromised by criminal interests that then
broadcast-out UCE to all the webmail account's established
correspondents including mailing lists.  Call it the GMail syndrome, if
you wish.  The spam goes through because it genuinely came from a
subscribed poster's address.  If this sort of mishap (rare) is
unacceptable to a listadmin, the listadmin's only solution is widespread
use of moderated status.  But personally I don't agree, and merely (if I
see that has happened) slam the subcription with a 'moderated' flag to
stop the bleeding.


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