Re: Improved mail archive prototype

[SoloCDM <deedsmis aculink net>]

Owen Taylor wrote:
> 
> [
>   I sent the following to the gnome-hackers mailing list,
>   and didn't get much response. (I guess everybody there is
>   already subscribed to every mailing list.) So, I'm trying
>   again in a wider forum.
> ]
> 
> I spent a bit of time today setting up some better archiving
> on mail.gnome.org.
> 
> A prototype of the result for a subset of the lists is at:
> 
>  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/
> 
> This is using MHonArc instead of the built-in pipermail archiver,
> without some loving to make it look better than the typical MHonArc
> "what the dog brought in".
> 
> Improvements include:
> 
>  - searching (!) - Uses the namazu search engine, which is
>    cool because it understands mhonarc formatted .html files
>    and can do field searches, e.g.:
> 
>    +subject:gtkclist
> 
>    It also didn't require setting up a database backend, and
>    worked out of the box, which made me happy.
> 
>  - Proper mime handling (see, e.g.
> 
>    http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-perl-list/2000-February/msg00008.html
> 
>  - Greater customizability. (If anybody wants to go in and
>    tweak the HTML, it's very straigthforward.)
> 
> Some questions I have:
> 
>  * Is the level of address mangling right? What it does is mangle:
> 
>      otaylor@redhat.com
> 
>    to:
> 
>      otaylor at redhat dot com
> 
>    Which won't stop determined spam harvesters, but might
>    keep you from getting spam from stupid people ;-)
> 
>    It also doesn't put addresses in mailto: links to avoid
>    making them too obvious.
> 
>    The two alternatives would be:
> 
>     - Don't mangle at all. This is what the pipermail archives
>       did. If you are like me, you consider trying to
>       keep your address out of the hands of spammers useless
>       task...
> 
>       The advantages are that searching works properly and
>       mailto: links work.
> 
>       But I have had some (not too many, really) complaints
>       about the current archives.
> 
>     - Aggressively mangle - e.g.:
> 
>         otaylor@xxxxxx.com
> 
>       So that neither people nor machine can figure it out. I
>       find this quite annoying as an archive user, but it is the
>       only sure way of stopping harvesting.
> 
>  - Is the ordering in the thread index what people want? (The
>    explanation at top is lifted from sources.cygnus.com.)
> 
>  - Is it distracting to have a search field at the top of each
>    Thread/Date/Author index? Useful?
> 
>  - Anything else you would want in order to make the archive
>    maximally convenient?
> 
> I should be able to move the public archives over to this new system
> with just a bit of editing of config files and an overnight
> run once I'm sure people are happy with it.
> 
> Moving the private archives is more difficult, and probably
> won't happen soon.

I like the search capabilities.

Having the ability to mangle the addresses in an unusable and
untranslatable format is more of my taste.  I never had the desire of
anyone else using my email address; although, the author of the email
will be impossible to contact, but that might be remedied by posting a
request on the intended mailing list.

Having more than one mailing list archived in one place will offer a
wider range of information, which makes an added plus.

*********************************************************************
Signed,
SoloCDM