[Mailman-Developers] (no subject)

[claw@kanga.nu]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 01:35:22 GMT 
etoffi  <etoffi@softhome.net> wrote:

> J C Lawrence writes:

> one thing i would like to say about message numbers before leaving
> this part of the conversation is that i can create my own list
> archive, which is automatically synced with all others because i
> have a "master" number.  maybe this could be an option (for people
> who like this point)

There is little preventing you from using MessageIDs to and for the
same purpose.  The only difference is that literal numbers are a bit
more human friendly than MessageIDs.  I argue that this is a false
economy as, handled properly the MessageID's would never have to be
human processed but could be embedded in URLs and pre-canned
commands ready to email.

> either way, my idea is to have a unique value that represents each
> message accepted to a list and a map of subscriber addresses and
> missed message [unique values].  

Not a bad idea.  I've got a CGI that does MessageID based lookups on
MHonArc archives (give it the MessageId it returns the archive
page).  It wouldn't be difficult to ad a mapping back to the
original message.

  In fact I'm about to be doing precisely this by adding a function
  to my archives such that you can have the original copy of any
  list post emailed to you.

As for the tracking of missed messages by subscribers this requires
VERP support as you can't guarantee taht the MessageID is available
in a bouce.  VERP support is currently under discussion as a
possible future optional feature -- it comes with a number of other
fairly chunky disadvantages.

> Mailman could then try for, let's say, two weeks, then
> automatically unsubscribe the bounced user or put them "on hold."

Automatic resends of bounced/missed posts my the MLM is an
interesting idea.  I don't like it from an abstraction/layering
model, but I can see why the interest.  Given a VERP supporting MLM
I'd prefer a pattern ala:

  -- Member bounces N messages
  -- Member successfully receives M messages as determined by the
  fact that no bounces for them is received for Q days.
  -- Mailman emails a list of the missed MessageIDs to the member
  along with instructions on how to retrieve/read the missed
  messages.  

The contents of the "how to retrieve X message" would have to be
tailored fairly heavily depending on the configuration of the list
in question (eg archiver turned on or off, use of an external
archiver, use of a subscribed archiver, external retrieval methods,
etc).

-- 
J C Lawrence                                       claw@kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
The pressure to survive and rhetoric may make strange bedfellows