Re: migrations (was Re: To all who wish to unsubscribe)

Andrew, all,

* Andrew Sullivan (ajs@crankycanuck.ca) wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 08:40:08PM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > So do you have any suggestions for actually fixing that? Given that we have
> > more lists to migrate, if you can figure out a way to make those changes
> > without peoples filters not matching, we'd be happy to hear it..
>
> I don't have an answer for that, but I will note that if this
> migration was announced weeks in advance I certainly missed it.  I
> admit I was busy, but I can't find it in the mail I didn't read yet,
> either.
>
> Maybe a two week heads up that some time in the future the mail is
> going to change (the same announcement as was sent) would help?

This is really all pointless.  No, further announcements wouldn't have
helped with all the unsubscribe complaints, which is far-and-away the
biggest issue with these kinds of migrations.  Yes, if we'd sent out
more emails about the migrations then maybe a few people who actually
want to be on the lists would have had their filters in place ahead of
time, but those aren't the people asking to be unsubscribed or (for the
most part) are complaining about the noise from the lists (and a good
number of them probably wouldn't have bothered to do anything until the
migration happened anyway).

This was always going to be bumpy.  We could have made it a bit smoother
by guessing ahead of time that people might just replace the subject
with 'unsubscribe' and catching those emails through a filter before
they hit the list and handling them manually, but there was no shortage
of various other ways that people asked to be unsubscribed that such a
filter wouldn't have caught (such as replying to an existing thread and
then asking in the body to be removed).

As a side-note to those who keep saying "email'ing the list with
unsubscribe doesn't do anything"- no, that's actually wrong, I *have*
been watching the lists and unsubscribing everyone who emails the list
asking to be because there's absolutely zero point in trying to 'force'
people to follow the directions; it just creates unnecessary angst.
Instead of replying to those emails, please, just ignore them- I will
get to them and take care of unsubscribing those individuals, or if I
can't figure out what email they're subscribed with then I'll email them
directly, off-list, and try to get it resolved.

Thankfully, the inbounds have slowed quite a bit and therefore,
hopefully, we're nearing the end of all of this and we can let these
threads just die and move on.  There's actually very few lists left to
migrate and they're either fully moderated (-announce) or small
(regional lists) and unlikely to have these kinds of issues.  All we're
doing now is debating how best to keep the barn door closed after the
horses have escaped and all that.

Thanks!

Stephen