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Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format

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On Mon, 17 May 2021 Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 05/17/2021 08:50 AM, Brian wrote:
>> On Mon 17 May 2021 at 04:58:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> 
>>> Some mailing list save posts in mbox format.
>>> Is there any way to download specific threads from
>>> lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format?

I've wondered this for a long time.

>> No.

I suspected that.

>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/02/msg02997.html
>> 
>> Bug #161440.

Thank you for this!

>
> Only ~2 decades old. Wouldn't want to fix things too fast. :{

It is currently tagged wontfix. That means don't hold your breath.

But look at the rationale:

  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=161440#49

One reads, "As to the rationale: Making mboxes available facilitates
harvesting of mail addresses even more than the web archives."

It seems to me that this rationale depends on a couple of unstated
premises:

  1. If published, each mbox would contain one month's worth of
  messages, all of the messages in one file.

  2. it is significantly easier for spammers to download a single file
  containing one month's worth of debian-user addresses, than it is to
  crawl through individual messages (using, presumably, the posted
  monthly author-indices).

So why not just publish monthly *per-subject* mboxes?

I see about 180 distinct authors on last month's author index

  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/author.html
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/author2.html

and about 160 distinct subjects on last month's subject index.

  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/subject.html
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/04/subject2.html

If last month's author-to-subject ratio is representative, then
publishing monthly per-subject mboxes (instead of monthly messages
containing all messages) would invalidate premise 2 (and contradict
premise 1, obviously).

So, can anyone see a reason not to propose publishing monthly
per-subject mboxes?


-- 
Ce qui est important est rarement urgent
et ce qui est urgent est rarement important
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

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Thread

Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-05-17 12:00 +0200
  Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-05-17 16:00 +0200
    Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-05-17 16:10 +0200
      Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2021-05-17 17:10 +0200
        Re: Downloading from lists.debian.org/debian-user in mbox format davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2021-05-17 17:20 +0200

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