[HCoop-Discuss] Openness of mailing lists

[Adam Chlipala]

Right now, all of our mailing lists are archived on gmane.  Some folks 
have expressed concerns, especially about hcoop-sysadmin, that it 
shouldn't be readable by the public.  It seems that we need to decide 
how to handle this now, since some admins are refusing to use that list, 
while others are treating it as the default place for admin discussions.

PROS for open list archives:
- Easy Google searching
- Prospective members can see how we operate.
- Archives are stored on servers with failure modes independent from ours.
- Some members prefer gmane's NNTP interface to the lists.

CONS for open list archives:
- Some folks are uneasy about writing anything that anyone can find 
later in a web search.  For instance, future potential employers, etc..
- We may discuss open security vulnerabilities on hcoop-sysadmin.


I suggest this resolution for now:
- Close hcoop-sysadmin.  Boot the archiving listener robots from the 
subscriber list and make the archives on the web viewable by subscribers 
only.  (Continue to enforce that only members may subscribe, using the 
portal's preferences page.)
- Make the other lists fully open, including publicly-viewable archive 
pages on our servers and subscriptions by archiving robots.

Any objections to this?