1996-05-15 - mailing list infrastructure

Header Data

From: “Vladimir Z. Nuri” <vznuri@netcom.com>
To: “Mark O. Aldrich” <maldrich@grci.com>
Message Hash: 26529b0e6814ae590fb243ebc57d41a254feeaaf327dec33b0c30683e2fde426
Message ID: <199605142011.NAA29073@netcom7.netcom.com>
Reply To: <Pine.SCO.3.91.960514124732.10594E-100000@grctechs.va.grci.com>
UTC Datetime: 1996-05-15 07:43:59 UTC
Raw Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 15:43:59 +0800

Raw message

From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 15:43:59 +0800
To: "Mark O. Aldrich" <maldrich@grci.com>
Subject: mailing list infrastructure
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SCO.3.91.960514124732.10594E-100000@grctechs.va.grci.com>
Message-ID: <199605142011.NAA29073@netcom7.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>Since hackers and wannabes probably read INFOSEC publications with more 
>zeal than do INFOSEC practitioners, I'd say we're likely to be in for even 
>more of the "I don't want to be on this list" sorts of traffic.

the mailing list infrastructure of cyberspace is at an 
incredibly immature stage of development imho, and this is a
good example of its lack of refinement. there is wide open
room for improvement and a lot of demand as well imho.

one possible short-term solution is to do the following: have
the mailing list send a secret password to the subscription
address before starting the list. the person replies with the
secret password to confirm they wanted the subscription. it's
a tedious two-stage process, but in some cases it may be
appropriate.

as far as long-term solutions go, I'd like to see some serious
thought about the following problems:

1. how do people avoid getting mail from entities they don't want,
but at the same time get mail from entities they do. note this
problem is far larger than that of mere mailing lists.

2. how can good cyberspatial forums be constructed that are
bulletproof against pranks.

3. how can these forums be integrated with future software such
as Netscape to give a good interface to the user.


I think there is room for an enterprising cyberspace company to
work on these problems and make a lot of money for succeeding.
for example, imagine a system similar to Yahoo that catalogs the
massive amounts of email mailing lists out there. "been done"?
no, sorry, I don't think so. there is a list by DeSilva or someone
that is pretty good, but I think only scratches the surface of
public mailing lists. a yahoo-like indexing system merely for
"cyberspace mailing lists" I think might be a profitable endeavor
to pursue.

another neat thing would be to have a "mailing list manager" built
into software. instead of this ridiculous concept of people hand-typing
and sending commands to listservers (all of which have different 
syntaxes and behavior etc.) I would like to see a "mailing list standard". a
standard way that a mailing list operates (as far as dealing with
headers, errors, subscribing, unsubscribing, etc.). 

then I would like to see a gui interface that handles all the options. 
you just see a group somewhere and a button that you press to
"subscribe". the software would automatically separate your mailing
list traffic into separate folders. it would keep track of what 
lists you are on, and all you would have to do is look at that
list and hit an "unsubscribe" button corresponding to a group you
are currently in, whenever you wanted to.

I really think that the above capabilities are going to prove
very valuable in the future and are the logical next step in
"civilizing cyberspace" after the web and netscape have overtaken the 
planet.

if I get some positive feedback from this message that others are
interested, I might go to the trouble to write up some preliminary
ideas on a standard. it really bugs me that this area hasn't been
standardized by this point, nor does there seem to be any activity
by any groups towards doing so.






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