Fw: [plug][protocol] no attachments please

[Bret Busby]

On Tue, 20 Aug 2002, Anthony J. Breeds-Taurima wrote:

> 
> Hi Wayne,
> 	If you feel strongly about this issue then please make a
> presentation/petition to the committee, and it will be discussed at the next
> committee meeting.  In the past the list in general has decided that the
> reduction in peoples freedom by stripping html/attachments outways the risks
> involved in leaving attachmnets in mail messages.
> 
> Yours Tony
> 
> 

Without knowing how the mailing list application operates, or how it can 
be configured, as some have this obsession about wanting the inclusion 
of signature attachments retained, so that they can show off that they 
are using PGP, can the mailing list application be configured to strip 
attachments that are not signature attachments?

That is a question, not a request. Significant difference.

If it can be done, I suggest that it be considered (that is the 
request). 

I do not know whether it is an issue that can be decided by 
the mailing list administrator, at that person's discretion, or, whether 
it needs to be decided by the PLUG committee. I am not sure even who the 
list administrator is, now. A previous request that I made to the list 
administrator, via the list, has not been acknowledged by a person, 
saying "I am the list administrator, and ...". 

In the past, polls regarding the operation of the list have (from 
memory) been conducted on the list, with something like

"Poll regarding attachments on mailing list

( ) Option 1 Strip all attachments
( ) Option 2 Strip all attachments that are not signatures
( ) Option 3 Reject all messages that include attachments
( ) Option 4 Make no change
Please reply, inserting an "x" in one of the above pairs of brackets, to 
indicate your choice. At the end of one week from the timestamp of this 
message, the results will be  counted and published, and the decision 
made accordingly."

It must be remembered, that not all subscribers to this list, use  
either Linux to access their email, or, good, plain text mail readers 
like pine, to read their email, and that there are therefore subscribers 
to the list, who can get stuck with viruses that are transmitted by the 
list. Also, and an equally important consideration, is that, no matter 
what anti-viral software is used by a computer user, insofar as I am 
aware, no antiviral software is guaranteed as being absolutely secure, 
so there is the possibility that a virus that is transmitted via the 
list, could be a virus that gets through the anti-viral software that a 
subscriber has installed, and, keeps up to date as much as the 
anti-viral software manufacturer is up to date.

And, as previously stated, the only two mailing lists (out of about 80 
to which I subscribe) of which I am aware, do not automatically strip 
attachments, are the two from which I have received viral messages, and 
this has happened within the last month. Both are Linux-related lists, 
which is unfortunate, and is not good for the reputations of either 
Linux, or, the lists. And, given the upcoming Linux conference is being 
held in Perth, the reputations of both Linux, and of any mailing list 
associated with PLUG, should be regarded as needing to be protected, 
and, viral transmission by PLUG, via its mailing list, is not good for 
either.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Doglas Adams, 1988
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