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Am 11 Dec 2009 um 09:19 schrieb P-O Yliniemi:
This is levelling down a distinction: there's spam that's definitely
spam and can be filtered reasonably easily before or after being sent
to the list. Sending something to the list that's not readily
distinguishable from other content is no longer a problem for a spam
filter, wherever it may sit.
Well, if the principle is that this list is to build and support
community around OpenBSD, it's a question about what's considered
appropriate conduct within the community. Clearly there are strong
feelings on either side, but I gotta ask whether advertising a
redistribution, where there's not a lot of evidence of other
involvement in the community, doesn't at least come across as, at
minimum, genuinely subject to question. You can disagree as to what
the answer is, but the exceptional characteristics that make this a
question don't just answer themselves by the kinds of characteristics
or implications that have been argued in its favour.
Sure, but how about substantial questions like code audits for the PHP
code and determining processes and mechanisms for patching? Binary
distribution may not be a sin in itself (I've come around to the
opinion that it's largely oversold as to its benefits), but,
particularly if it's claiming to carry the flag of simplification, one
may nevertheless be circumspect about the approach and implementation,
by people who've not otherwise established standing in the community.
I've had enough experience with Unix engineering to have both sympathy
for someone who does this kind of work independently of established
community organs and a strong scepticism as to whether the product
will be nearly as robust as advertised or imagined for lack of strong
challenges and correctives from peers and existing centres of
expertise. I certainly can't think it reasonable to be so taken away
with the sympathetic element of response as to overlook or underweight
the strong prospect of flaws resulting from the approach taken.
Conversely, with time spent talking about how you might solve the
kinds of problems entailed by such project, you'd have a decent chance
of establishing your credibility and the prospective quality of your
project well enough that you wouldn't have to overload an existing
channel to make release announcements, no?
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