[wplug] Global Linux Meeting March 7 Sat BerkeleyTIP -Global - For Forwarding

[Pat Barron]

Eli Heady wrote
> Anyway IMHO, (and after being reminded of wplug-announce) these
> messages should be going to -announce, if anywhere.
>   
If even there.

Personally, I'm interested in these notices - but would rather not see 
them sent via WPLUG's mailing lists, which in my mind should be for 
communications about WPLUG and it's activities, or communications among 
WPLUG members.  To me, other organizations trying to leverage WPLUG's 
mailing lists regularly (i.e., beyond maybe a once or twice a year, 
"Hey, here's our organization, here's our web site, check it out if you 
want" kind of thing) to gain access to the WPLUG audience are simply 
spamming. The advantage to an outside organization using the WPLUG 
mailing lists in this manner, is that they have a captive audience - 
it's not like people can stop receiving occasional messages like t his 
by unsubscribing, because then they'll miss out on the majority of 
content that they actually do want.   And to me, the "If you don't want 
to read these messages, just filter them" argument is a non-starter, the 
messages still have to be transmitted across my bandwidth, stored on my 
server for some period of time, etc., even if I don't see them, or if 
they're deleted as soon as they arrive - if it's not pertinent to the 
mission of that mailing list, it shouldn't even be transmitted to me.

What might be cool, rather than having various and sundry other 
organizations "leverage" WPLUG's lists to gain access to that audience, 
it might be nice to have a section on the WPLUG Wiki pertaining to 
"Other organizations of interest", which could include a brief blurb 
about what that organization is, how to get on their mailing lists, find 
their web site, etc.  There could be some standards for who gets to be 
listed on this page (e.g., must have something to do with computers or 
technology, must have something to do with Linux, must be local, among 
other possible criteria that could be used - otherwise, I can just see 
some organization like the ASPCA - just as an illustration, not saying 
they'd actually do this.. - saying "Well, we want to be listed on your 
site, because I'm sure there are WPLUG members who would be interested 
in the ASPCA..." - but their mission isn't exactly complementary with 
WPLUG's mission...).  That way, people can look at the listing, see the 
information about how to subscribe to the mailing list, and make their 
own decision about whether or not to do so.  Mailing lists are 
reasonably cheap and easy to maintain....

That's my opinion, for whatever that's worth...

--Pat.