In message <199405082239.PAA26640@mycroft.GreatCircle.COM>, Brent Chapman
writes:
> sylviac@netcom.com (Sylvia Caras) writes:
>
> # I'm involved in a lot of NII lobbying, free nets, etc. and
> # often get messages about writing to electeds WHO DON'T
> # HAVE E MAIL <sigh>.
> #
> # Is there a way to use majordomo or some program to be an
> # address to tally pros and cons, save the names and addresses,
> # and then generate a wrap up message which would be snailed
> # to the right place?
> #
> # Until all the electeds are on line, this would be useful.
> #
> # I am not a programmer, and I don't know C, and I struggle
> # with the unix commands to use internet effectively.
> # So this is an idea, but I haven't the skill to put it
> # into operation.
>
> Interesting question... You could create two Majordomo-managed lists,
> named "issue-yes" and "issue-no" (for whatever "issue" is), make them
> both "auto" lists (so that all subscription requests would succeed),
> and tell people to use Majordomo to subscribe to the list that
> expressed their opinion.
>
> You'd have to worry about people stuffing the ballot box or
> registering others, but you have to worry about that even with paper
> petitions.
Actually rather than auto, make them normal open lists. That helps
limit the amount of abuse, although forging email is simple. What I
have done in the past is to have the voters put some special word or
number in the address (we used our membership numbers). So a vote
looked like:
subscribe amalgam-yes id#452198 <rouilj@cs.umb.edu>
Then these numbers were compared against the valid voting membership
lists. This does of course assume that your voters can craft a valid
email address. The version of majordomo we used actually had a "vote"
command that acted like subscribe, but that would add the default
address if it looked like there wasn't an address provided.
The "lists" command could be used to see what issues were available
for voting and the info file was public, and they info files contained
the text of the voting issue.
Note that you should make sure to make who private, and not bother
creating the mail aliases until voting is closed. Once voting is
closed, and the id#'s have been validated, set up the mail aliases and
send a message of the form:
You are receiving the message because you voted yes on the
issue of ...
It makes a useful check for peole who may have voted incorrectly, or
may not have had their votes counted.
-- John
John Rouillard
Special Projects Volunteer University of Massachusetts at Boston
rouilj@cs.umb.edu (preferred) Boston, MA, (617) 287-6480
===============================================================================
My employers don't acknowledge my existence much less my opinions.
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