opened topic for discussion on -infrastructure list:

Team - 

Over the last week we've had a few requests for "private" lists. I wanted to throw the topic out for discussion and find out what everyone feels is the definition for a "private" list.

What combination of mailman settings will configure a list as being private vs public?

private archives?
moderated subscriptions?
advertise list name in directory?
...

I'll gather all the comments and add it to the Wiki.

Thanks,
Christer

(copying email thread into ticket for consolidation).

Hi Christer,

Thanks for kicking off the discussion and asking the question.

Personally, I think there is rarely a need for a private mailing list.
Other than the handful of ones we already have (board, board-mentor,
legal and marketing-private) I don't see a real need - we should be as
transparent as we can as a free software organization.

I think in the rare case of having to create a list, we need to ask a
couple of questions first:

1.  Why do we need a private mailing list
2.  Who is the moderator - they are going to need to ask the questions
you asked above and maintain the list, especially if it's moderated
subscriptions.
3. Discuss with the moderator whether it's private archives, moderated
subscriptions and advertising the list name.

Paul

documented on http://live.gnome.org/NewListRequest