samba - Apr 2009 - Mailing list netiquette reminder / update

Gentle susbscribers,

This is a reminder to all samba mailing list subscribers that this list
is moderated.  Most of you know what that means, so for the benefit of
those who are new to the list or who are not familiar with the mechanics
of a mailing list please note the following:

1) Incoming messages are scanned and filtered by mailman to remove
messages that may have objectionable content, are incorrectly addressed,
or that are too large for general distribution.

2) For the benefit of our subscribers, posting to this list is
restricted too subscribed email addresses. Postings from a return
address other than your subscribed address will be redirected to the
attention of the list moderators.

3) Over recent months the number of large message postings has
increased. Distribution of large messages to thousands of users is
costly in terms of network bandwidth usage.  Some of our subscribers pay
for their internet traffic volume.

Please be aware that when a message with a 1 Megabyte attachment is sent
to the list, you are generating many Gigabytes of mail traffic for
samba.org - so keep in perspective the need to keep email messages short
and to the point.

4) Recently there has been an increase is the number of seemingly
legitimate message postings from mail clients that create defective
message headers.  Please use a mail client that creates headers that
conform with appropriate RFC standards.


All of the above lead to the following:

a) More work for the moderators!

b) Frustration by message posters whose messages are not directly making
 it to the list.

c) More messages being rejected by the moderators as they apply the
guidelines our subscribers have requested: Some of which result in
emails wanting to know why their message was 'rejected', or worse -
abuse for being 'obstructive'.

I hope this reminder helps you to see the human side of list moderation
- AND - how you can help assure the smooth operation of this mailing list.

- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra