[Mailman-Developers] edit moderated messages?

[Barry A. Warsaw]

[Trimming to mailman-developers... -BAW]

>>>>> "TMP" == Thomas M Parris <parris@isciences.com> writes:

    TMP> 1. Can you tell me if anyone is currently working in
    TMP> implementing moderated edits?

JC's right, this has never been supported.  He also points out two
other good things to keep in mind when thinking about working on
this: 1) the edited message must (IMO) automatically include some kind
of prominent disclaimer that it has been edited; 2) the current
moderation interface doesn't include the entire message, and doing so
could really bog down the admindb page.

For #1, I definitely wouldn't want to bury the disclaimer in an X-
header, which not all MUAs will display.  Perhaps it's best to stick
something in the footer or header, or modify the Subject: line.  I'm
not sure.  A little bit of user testing would be in order.

For #2, I can see two approaches.  Either support only via-email
editing, or reorganize the admindb page so that you can limit the
total number of messages it displays (and thus the size of the page,
even given some big messages).

I've thought about including the original message in the first admin
notification that gets sent when the message is held, probably as a
MIME attachment.  I've also thought about including /all/ the held
messages as MIME attachements for the daily admin notifications.
Ideal would be a way to respond to a MIME digested message such that
you could inform Mailman of the action you want to take on it.  Since
I think discard is probably the most common action, that one should be
the least painful, but all other options should be possible.
Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a decent email-based UI that
wouldn't be error prone.

Alternatively, we could simplify the "forward to admin" feature of the
admindb page.  Then the admin could edit the message and resend it
(i.e. using Resent-to:).

    TMP> 2. If not, would you be willing to help me climb the learning
    TMP> curve to implement moderated edits myself?  (I have
    TMP> programmed extensively in a numerous programming languages
    TMP> and am well versed in WWW/CGI programming.

It would be cool to have folks work out some of these issues, but I
don't think I will have time for the MM2.1 release.  I'd really like
to get to feature freeze soon, so I'd prefer an approach where you
folks prototype and test out some of the stickier ui issues.

    TMP> 3. Are there deep rooted philosophical objections to
    TMP> moderated edits?

Not as long as the recipients are clearly informed that the message
has been edited by the moderator.

-Barry