[ALAC] At-Large mailing list activity reports

Eduardo Diaz eduardodiazrivera at gmail.com
Mon Jan 26 18:21:27 UTC 2015


I read them from time to time. Those that do not care to receive them can
easily filter them out with their respective email readers.

-ed



On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 12:23 AM, Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>
wrote:

> Jean-Jacques Subrenat has raised the issue of the At-Large mailing list
> reports generated weekly by Thomas Narten. An example is follows:
>
>     Messages   |      Bytes        | Who
> --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------
>  28.57% |    4 | 37.14% |    56728 | jjs at dyalog.net
>  21.43% |    3 | 22.75% |    34743 | jefsey at jefsey.com
>  14.29% |    2 | 10.51% |    16050 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at
> gmail.com
>   7.14% |    1 | 11.72% |    17899 | mcknight.glenn at gmail.com
>   7.14% |    1 |  5.16% |     7874 | hilyard at oyster.net.ck
>   7.14% |    1 |  5.06% |     7731 | alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca
>   7.14% |    1 |  5.03% |     7687 | narten at us.ibm.com
>   7.14% |    1 |  2.63% |     4015 | at-large-bounces at
> atlarge-lists.icann.org
> --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------
> 100.00% |   14 |100.00% |   152727 | Total
>
> I understand that Thomas produces similar reports for a number of other
> mailing lists including the main ietf list (https://www.ietf.org/mail-
> archive/web/ietf/current/msg91110.html).
>
> Jean-Jacques' questions along with my answers follow:
>
> - Was there a decision to task any particular individual/firm with
> carrying out this statistical/nominative tracking? Was this decision taken
> in ALAC or elsewhere (date, reference)?
>
> AG: The tallies were requested by the ALAC Chair. The message documenting
> this is part of our e-mail archive that is missing, but a copy of the
> message is attached.
>
> - Was this submitted to regular review and approval, or is there a
> separate decision to grant this as a permanent authorization (date,
> reference)?
>
> AG: Soon after the statistics started, they were questioned with the
> perception that it violated peoples privacy. It was pointed out that the
> statistics were generated based on a public archive (which is also indexed
> by Google). I am not aware of any further concerns raised in the ensuing
> seven years.
>
> - If this is being used as a metrics tool, what is its qualitative
> relevance? Has it been effectively used to "measure" the value of this or
> that member, say in ALAC? How were the criteria determined, and by whom
> (date, reference)?
>
> AG: I believe that the original request was made because of a person
> regarded as a troll who was posting large numbers of messages. The
> summaries have proven useful from time to time and all e-mail programs have
> the ability to filter them out for those who do not wish to see them.
>
> QUESTION TO THE ALAC: I see no harm in continuing to have these statistics
> generated, and in fact, the Metrics WG has discussed doing something
> similar for other lists as well. Are there any ALAC who feel that we need
> to either curtail this practice or discuss it further?
>
> Alan
>
> _______________________________________________
> ALAC mailing list
> ALAC at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac
>
> At-Large Online: http://www.atlarge.icann.org
> ALAC Working Wiki:
> https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Advisory+Committee+(ALAC)
>



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