Changes to OASIS TC Comment Facilitiy

[Mary McRae <mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS staff is evaluating a variety of long-term solutions for enhancing 
public feedback on Committee work. An initial step, which should 
significantly minimize spam postings in Committee comment lists, will be 
to eliminate the "comment form" and switch to a subscription-based email 
list. Each subscription request will require a confirmation, which will 
include agreement to the Feedback License. We have set up a test list 
and encourage you to subscribe, read through the text of the 
subscription message, and provide feedback.

Send email to: shoes-markup-comment-subscribe@lists.oasis-open.org

We believe this change has numerous benefits, including:

- closing the access point that was allowing spam to get through,
- allowing comment submitters to use their email tool of choice and the 
additional functionality it provides,
- providing an authenticated email address for sender with a reliable 
means of responding to the submitter, and
- offering the ability to enter a meaningful subject line that is 
included in the email archive.

We have also rewritten the "Send A Comment" landing page to contain 
useful information, including:

- instructions for subscribing and other details related to the email list,
- an overview of what happens to submitted feedback, and
- related mailing lists for the TC (-dev, -users, etc.).

The new "Send A Comment" landing page can be previewed here:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/comments/form-test.php?wg_abbrev=dita

In order to put this new functionality in place, all existing 
subscribers to current comment lists will be automatically unsubscribed 
-- notification will be sent to each subscriber letting them know that 
the change is taking place and that they should re-subscribe after the 
launch date. Chairs and secretaries will be automatically re-subscribed 
to their TC's comment list.

Please provide any feedback to the chairs list on or before Thursday, 1 
June 2006. After reviewing the feedback we will notify the chairs list 
as well as tc-comment list subscribers of any changes, and announce the 
planned roll-out date.

Regards,

Mary

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Mary P McRae
Manager of TC Administration, OASIS
email: mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org  web: www.oasis-open.org
phone: 603.232.9090 (US)