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Mar. 19th, 2010 02:46 pmI do the administration on a couple of dozen mail lists. This is partly a relic of the whole Beijing process. From about 1995, local and regional women's NGOs have needed a place to discuss issues and mechanics and to share news and to monitor progress. My lists were where it was all happening for the first few years. Discussions have mostly gone elsewhere, but the lists are still being maintained (by me!) and are still used from time to time. A decade ago there were hundreds of messages every day, and it's still a great way of getting messages out in a hurry. Something like thirty women's organisations can still be reached using the lists. That's the good news*.
The bad news is that these lists are total spambait, since the names are accessible on a number of websites. I get the glory of cleaning out the spam.
Over a decade ago, the web interface was the best thing out - and it's still pretty cool. It does, however, have one defect. The only way for me to clean out spam is by clicking a button to delete it, one piece at a time. Centrally, someone can clean out everything from all the hundreds of lists hosted by the AVCWL/NWJC,* but that means that someone centrally has to make the decision and it means that all the stuff caught by mistake in the spamtrap will be deleted as well. So each year I clean mine out, one email at a time, mostly deleting but very ocasionally discovering an email that needs to be sent through. I used to clean it out once a week, but life has changed etc.
It was pretty obvious by my posts this week that today was going to be a quiet day for me. After I'd rested a bunch, though, I had just enough energy to start this rather mind-numbing and hand-hurting task. I had only got halfway through my annual cleanup before things went bad, and server space is precious. It was past time to finish the job. I girded my limbs and typed in my password and called up the first list and checked the moderation queue.
Thee were only about fifty emails to delete. Someone has obviously exercised the power of the Central Decision.
In return for that remarkable gift (hours of menial labour that I don't have to do), I thought I'd introduce you to the lovely list of women's lists that the AVCWL sponsors. Not all of them are open to the general public - most have some sort of membership restriction. There's some extraordinary work being done through the NWJC, though, and the lists are a fine example.
*I do like doing the good and bad news thing, don't I?
*AVCWL - Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law
NWJC - National Women's Justice Coalition
The bad news is that these lists are total spambait, since the names are accessible on a number of websites. I get the glory of cleaning out the spam.
Over a decade ago, the web interface was the best thing out - and it's still pretty cool. It does, however, have one defect. The only way for me to clean out spam is by clicking a button to delete it, one piece at a time. Centrally, someone can clean out everything from all the hundreds of lists hosted by the AVCWL/NWJC,* but that means that someone centrally has to make the decision and it means that all the stuff caught by mistake in the spamtrap will be deleted as well. So each year I clean mine out, one email at a time, mostly deleting but very ocasionally discovering an email that needs to be sent through. I used to clean it out once a week, but life has changed etc.
It was pretty obvious by my posts this week that today was going to be a quiet day for me. After I'd rested a bunch, though, I had just enough energy to start this rather mind-numbing and hand-hurting task. I had only got halfway through my annual cleanup before things went bad, and server space is precious. It was past time to finish the job. I girded my limbs and typed in my password and called up the first list and checked the moderation queue.
Thee were only about fifty emails to delete. Someone has obviously exercised the power of the Central Decision.
In return for that remarkable gift (hours of menial labour that I don't have to do), I thought I'd introduce you to the lovely list of women's lists that the AVCWL sponsors. Not all of them are open to the general public - most have some sort of membership restriction. There's some extraordinary work being done through the NWJC, though, and the lists are a fine example.
*I do like doing the good and bad news thing, don't I?
*AVCWL - Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law
NWJC - National Women's Justice Coalition