Re: Concerns for the MIU mailing list

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:52:14 -0800

Hi Mike,
At 14:47 23-02-2016, Jules Mike Giovanni wrote:
>After reading through the above e-mail from the archive, it becomes
>clear that subscribers know that their e-mail address will be seen
>publicly since this is a public mailing list. Personally, I knew
>when subscribing that my e-mail address would be exposed for the
>whole world to see and made sure that I was ready for any spam. I
>ran through some public mailing lists and saw that this was also the case.

Some measures were implemented because of abuse. Several months ago,
a few subscribers on this mailing list encountered some
problems. Those subscribers were all members of LUGM. The person
who caused the problems used an email address from "gmail.com" and
provided a fake name.

What does the law say in respect to anonymous comments? I would have
to hire a lawyer and explain how an open mailing list works to get
legal advice about that.

People from the island tend to automatically adopt ideas from abroad
without analyzing whether it is applicable within the local
context. In Mauritius, the best way to assess the reputation of a
person is through Facebook. I doubt that people are aware that they
are already exposed and that anyone can see that. It does not matter
whether the world (outside Mauritius) sees that unless the person is
involved in international activities.

The real issues are a "legal" practice which may be unique to
Mauritius and that opinions are viewed as an meaning that the person
is for or against a political party. The mailing list archives will
show that the group did not get involved in any political matter.

Does a complaint has any merit if there isn't any evidence to support
it? I don't think so. Nowadays, it is possible to have evidence of
verbal complaints as the average mobile phone comes with features for
audio and video recording. There is a recording of the conversation
when you call your ISP about a problem with its service. The issue
here is that it is possible to ignore a complaint as the person
filing it does not have any evidence.

In some countries you might find people analyzing problems as part of
their academic activities. If you attend a workshop in Mauritius,
you will rarely hear a person from an academic institution asking any
question, i.e. asking question is bad for the person's career.

Would a business follow a recommendation without any analysis? It is
unusual in Mauritius to be asked for an analysis to support a
technical recommendation. That's because people believe the "experts
en informatique". :-)

If you encounter a internet-related problem, who will help you? If
you a member of a group, will you receive some public support from
the group or will the other members of the group leave you to face
the internet-related problem on your own?

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Wed Feb 24 2016 - 23:52:37 PST