>My point being that THEY are
>going to make money on the lists YOU run, typically on a volunteer basis,
>and it is only fair that THEY should make the effort. This includes the
>effort of adding 10 lines to their perl script so that they only send one
>request for all the lists hosted at any given machine, to which you can
>answer either YES TO ALL or YES TO THE FOLLOWING. Then it takes you just
>as long to say yes or no.
I agree with Eric here. They are doing something that will enrich them and
their customers in some way: they should put the effort in. Fortunately,
this is a case where we assume that the people doing the work probably
competant; however, they will certainly be followed by competitors who are
not.
The precedents should be set:
- If you want to subscribe to an open mailing list for a purpose other than
a human to participate in the list (even if that means just lurking), you
ask permission before you join, and you don't join unless permitted.
- If you are going to join a slew of lists run by one person, you try
figure out ways to induce the list manager to say yes to all.
Both are reasonable for the information collectors and show respect for the
list managers. This is similar to the "robot exclusion protocol" on the Web.
References:
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