Some administrivia -

["Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () nfr net>]

Forgive me for some administrivial notes. ;)

-       1) Yes, I am aware that a spam slipped through moderation last
        week. I use an inhouse-developed SSL-based interface to majordomo
        that is very convenient, etc. It's also unforgiving if I accidentally
        "Approve" a message I meant to "Discard" and tell it to process
        it. :)  Sometimes I make mistakes. I apologize for the spam you
        saw. Usually the list gets between 2 and 10 spams/day. I figure if
        I accidentally screw up and let one past we're all still ahead of
        the game.

-       2) I used to notify people (then discard) cross-postings. Nowadays
        I get so many that I discard them without notice. If your posting to
        firewall-wizards doesn't get through, one possible reason might
        be that it's a cross-posting.

-       3) I sometimes let through questions that are repeats from earlier
        questions, or are not wizardly in stature.  Please do not be
        rude to the questioners. I also filter out large numbers of
        "go read an FAQ" kinds of questions, which you never see at
        all.

-       4) I have adopted a policy of immediately unsubscribing anyone
        who has:
                - a stupid vacation program that replies to the list
                - a bounce
                - a full mailbox
                - a mail loop
        if you suddenly find that you are not getting list postings,
        it may be because you were unsubscribed for one of the above.
        If you complain, you will get an unsympathetic response from me.
        Just resubscribe quietly.

-       5) I travel a whole lot. Sometimes there are whole days where
        I will not process the list queue. Frankly, I think this provides
        useful flow control. If you don't see anything appearing when
        you post it you can always go to:
        http://www.nfr.net/firewall-wizards/
        and check the last few days. I get very unsympathetic when I
        see 8 postings followed by a query to the moderator as to why
        they didn't go through, followed by a personal e-mail of
        complaint. If you think I don't process the queue often enough,
        you're welcome to try moderating a mailing list in realtime
        while running a company, teaching, and travelling a few hundred
        thousand miles a year. See how you like it. :)

-       6) Remember how to unsubscribe. Posting to the list, "UNSUBSCRIBE
        ME NOW" is not the kind of thing firewall-wizards are expected
        to do. I hold you to a higher standard than that. To unsubscribe,
        mail majordomo () nfr net with a message reading,
        unsubscribe firewall-wizards you@whereever

-       7) I reserve the right, periodically, to announce that a topic
        is being source-quenched. That means, "please stop hammering
        on this issue."  If you feel that the issue is worthy of more
        attention, simply make more interesting postings. :)

-       8) Sometimes someone posts a question that triggers a large
        storm of responses, all the same. (e.g.: "what is a firewall?")
        In the event that this happens, I will start to bounce later
        postings, if they say substantially the same thing as earlier
        postings.  I will not bounce postings that say new or interesting
        things, are well-written, or well-explained, or otherwise
        meritorious. If you want to make snappy one-liner comebacks,
        make them in direct Email not to the list.

This has been a public service announcement packet from your moderator. :)

mjr.
--
Marcus J. Ranum, CEO, Network Flight Recorder, Inc.
work - http://www.nfr.net
home - http://www.clark.net/pub/mjr