[Mailman-Developers] Responsiveness

[J C Lawrence]

On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 16:31:11 -0800 
Chuq Von Rospach <chuqui@plaidworks.com> wrote:

> At 7:18 PM -0500 12/14/00, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:

>> It's not the MLM's problem (not to say it isn't the problem of
>> the simple-minded qrunner script we distribute and enable by
>> default).  All I need to do is document the file format for the
>> outbound queue files and site administrators can take it from
>> there.

> except I see this as still part of the MLM, since it's the tool
> doing the MLM->MTA handoff, not part of the MTA itself.

We need to define what an MLM is and does: We're entering a scary
territory which goes far beyond the standard modesl of
subscriber-based list to more dynamic work-flow and collaborative
flow oriented entities where really the only thing the MLM does is
prove a named membership list, which it will yield on query after
passing some authentication mechanism such that the membership list
is associated with a particular message.

Actual delivery of messages, MTAs, transports, authentication
mechanisms, membership definitions, account definitions, etc, are
really outside of its purview.  All an MLM does is provide names
which can be associated with lists of addresses, and a means for
associating those lists of addresses with a message.

-- 
J C Lawrence                                       claw@kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--