Re: [Asrg] Summary/outline of why the junk button idea is pre-failed

[Daniel Feenberg <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, 2 Mar 2010, Rich Kulawiec wrote quite a lot. I don't propose to 
answer it directly - he doesn't introduce any new evidence or new 
arguments, just asserts his old arguments more loudly. Everyone reading 
the exchange is entitled to evaluate the arguments for themselves in the 
light of their own experience.

There is one argument, not made by Kulawiec that does deserve a response. 
That is the underlying problem with the TIS button that is real. It will 
generate ARFs that are really just list-unsubscribe requests from 
perfectly legitimate sources. It will generate these in large numbers and 
it will be impractical to reduce them with user education. Anyone 
proposing to process the flood of such messages will have to come up with 
an economical way of doing so that doesn't inconvenience the list owners. 
In fact, I think most of the opposition to the TIS button comes from the 
owners of such lists who feel they would be the victims. To some extent 
they are justified - they are following the rules, why should they pay a 
penalty. But if the penalty were a small change in their operation, say an 
improvement in the standardization of list-unsubscribe headers - it might 
be justifiable.

Since any operator can just ignore the reports, it is unreasonable to 
claim that the TIS button will cause extensive damage to anything. They 
might be ineffective, but I don't think so.

Daniel Feenberg