Changes in INDOLOGY??

[witzel at HUSC3.HARVARD.EDU]

Dear Dominik,

Other than proposed by some, it is not necessary at all to turn Indology 
into a closed list in order to solve the problem of spamming, etc. 

The following option has not been considered:

The usual way to filter spamming out of mailing lists is to install a
"filter", a custom script which scans incoming mail for keywords, and
rejects a message if one or more keywords are found.Such scripts are very
easy to write and install, and many are freely available, as usual, on the
Internet. 

Such a filter posted on the SmartList mailing list a few months ago. It
filters out the us[Aual spamming, including the "Free one-year magazine
subscription" messages that are almost the only spamming I've seen on
Indology. 

These scripts are highly customizable. To solve some of the other problems
one could, easily, include such keywords as "khajuraho"/"chaos" ( etc.) to
turn away the more inane messages, -- in case it really becomes necessary,
though I personally would not advise to do so on the spur of the moment... 


So, *no need* to "close" the list, certainly not from a technical point of
view. Every mailing list and newsgroup on the Internet has to deal with
spamming, etc. but very few of them are moderated. 


I think this solves our problem.


Best wishes, 

M. Witzel