[Mailman-Developers] User Interface Suggestions

[brandon@roguetrader.com]

A few months ago I migraded a few large lists to MailMan, and since
then I have been collecting various user interface comments...
I believe some of this can be changed through templates, but I am
posting it more for future help than anything.  Specifically because a
lot of people gripe about open source software because the UI's tend
to be lacking in many ways--often because they are developed by
techies for techies, not for common users...

1) Too much information

Each page presents a lot of information and I have noticed it tends
to scare people.  Specifically, the mailman/listinfo/[list] page by
default overwealms most normal users.  Perhaps something as simple 
as a top section which is less terse, welcoming the user to the [list]
information page and presenting them with the things they can do
there, in a simple user focused list, such as:

-------------
Welcome to the mylist-foo information page.  From here you can:

  * Subscribe to mylist-foo
  * Unsubscribe or Change your subscription to mylist-foo
  * Browse historical archives of mylist-foo
  * Configure mylist-foo (administrators only)

You can send a message to this list by emailing mylist-foo@domain.com.
-------------

With the default page it almost appears to be information
overload--even though the information is clearly seperated and
organized, I see their eyes just glaze over the second they load the
page.

At the very least, I think the 'to Change your subscription' MUST be
put into its own category, the biggest request I get is people asking
how to unsubscribe, and they insist they have viewed the listinfo page
yet cannot find anywhere to unsubscribe it.  Because it is lumped into
the same area as list admin, they just skip it.

The administrative pages also have similar issues, but it is less of a
problem because most admins are more technically adept...

2) Change-Address feature

The ability for somebody to go into their 'account' with an old email
and password and then change it to their new email address would help
immensely--even better would be a site-wide email change where the
user could request that their email is changed on each and every list.
(or for that matter, to commit any user configurable change to all
lists on the site).

3) Automated cleanup of disabled users

This has been discussed recently, but I would also like to put in my 2
bits for an automated cleanup of disabled users.

I am willing to help work on a UI adjustment, but I am not willing to
learn python (I have enough time dumped into those languages I know, I
dont need to learn another one :)  I can help from the HTML
perspective, however.

-Brandon Gillespie