• Deleting/removing content from Debian mailing lists [WAS Re: Mailing li

    From Andrew M.A. Cater@21:1/5 to hlyg on Sun Jan 12 14:40:01 2025
    On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 02:02:45PM +0800, hlyg wrote:
    is it possible for moderator to remove posts that go astray too far when archiving?


    Hi hlyg,

    The Debian lists don't work quite that way. It's quite hard to establish
    that there's nothing useful even in the longest threads. Also, Debian
    archives are there for future readers - chunks of missing mail won't
    help.

    We don't hide problems as they arise. We also don't delete mails unless
    they are obvious spam and that comes after the event and after some
    review. If you do find that a post on the lists is spam, please
    report it on the web version of the lists where there's a Report as spam button.

    Although I try to keep this list on track, this is not a formally
    moderated list. Debian only has one moderated list at the moment, as
    far as I'm aware - debian-project gets a lot of spam / off topic posts
    from the outside world. Formal moderation of that list means that each post
    has to be pre-approved to reach the wider list, which imposes a delay and a burden on the moderators.

    If posts need to be removed from this or any other list, then they need to
    be notified to the listmasters to approve the removal from the Debian
    archives. Obviously, that doesn't mean that a post disappears completely because there are lots of archives around the 'Net which aren't under Debian control and web archives have probably cached it. _Very occasionally,
    extremist political propaganda or posts linking to illegal or questionable content have also been posted to Debian open lists and these have also been removed by listmasters.

    I think this is covered by the FAQ but there's no harm in repeating it occasionally. It does mean that if you post something you regret onto
    the Internet / a Debian list, then there's little possibility of
    removing it completely.

    With every good wish, as ever,

    Andrew Cater
    (amacater@debian.org)

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