making Mailman CAN-SPAM compliant (was Re:[Mailman-Developers] Hashing member passwords in config.pck)

[Tobias Eigen]

Dear friends,

I had *no idea* my post was going to generate this level of response. 
Thank you all. I'm simply fascinated by the dynamics in the group, 
inspired by your generosity, and eager to help out in any way I can. 
Let me make a few brief points, then forward another message I just 
sent to another list which is inspired by this discussion and by a 
number of other ongoing threads that seem to be coming together right 
now and make for what I think is a tremendous opportunity for those of 
us interested in this yahoogroups type functionality.

1) I am not a coder. I am very into open source software, though, and 
have been for a long time. I have installed many open source tools on 
the Kabissa server over the years which are used very actively by 
people in Africa working for nonprofits. This includes Mailman, phpbb, 
horde and more. I am able to hack around in existing scripts and follow 
instructions to do limited customization. I've had Mailman running on 
Kabissa for over four years now, and have many thousands of posts in 
list archives and tens of thousands of subscribers participating in 
lists hosted on Kabissa.

2) I am currently dedicated to taking all of these disparate tools that 
people are making great use of on Kabissa, and integrating them into a 
single community Web site so that they can use them better. I am 
therefore interested in Mambo CMS (http://www.mamboserver.com) and am 
eager to encourage any efforts that will enable me to take existing 
Kabissa services (like Mailman) and integrate them into Mambo 
components (existing or new).

3) This is the background to my post about making Mailman CAN-SPAM 
compliant. It helps to know that there are developers interested in 
addressing usability issues and also to have confirmed that there is a 
general understanding that Mailman can be improved.

4) As Brad mentioned, he is now volunteering at Kabissa on mailman 
administration.. which is great! With his involvement, there are some 
small contributions Kabissa can make as relates to helping others to 
make Mailman work well in a plesk/qmail setup like ours, and which I'd 
like to see incorporated in future versions of Plesk. However, I think 
Kabissa may be able to help more by drumming up interest in Mailman, by 
partnering with other likeminded organizations seeking the same 
functionality like Bellanet, and perhaps by raising funds to pay for 
the development of some key features that Kabissa needs particularly 
urgently.

Best wishes,

Tobias

On Feb 17, 2005, at 9:33 AM, Tokio Kikuchi wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Sorry I'm responding late. We had presentations of master theses and I 
> had to look after 3 out of 8 students for qualification. Moreover, 2 
> students are Chinese and difficulty in expressing themselves in 
> Japanese. (Like myself in English :-( )
>
> Adrian Bye wrote:
>
>> http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.039.htp
>> Yesterday I contributed patches which enables Mailman to have this 
>> exact
>> functionality which we borrowed from Yahoo Groups.  Yet I've seen no 
>> response
>> from you yet, and only one half dismissive response from another 
>> mailman
>> developer.
>
> I looked through your code and my feeling is not integrating this 
> patch in 2.1.6. The Decorate.py file was considerably patched in CVS 
> by myself and it will take time to adjust the submitted 2.1.5 patch. 
> Also, there are some functions copied from other sources not importing 
> nor inheriting. And, if you write code for immediate integration in 
> the CVS, you should read 
> http://barry.warsaw.us/software/STYLEGUIDE.txt and PEP 8, or at least 
> read the existing code and learn the style.
>
>> Mailman CAN be as good - and better - than Yahoo Groups.  It doesn't 
>> have to
>> take lots of money and resources.  Just being willing to accept our 
>> code a piece
>> at a time, and encouraging those who contribute will go a long way 
>> towards
>> getting there.
>> There may be some disagreement on the unsubscribe styff, but the 
>> header/footer
>> handling only benefits everyone.  I certainly hope that the mailman 
>> team will be
>> responsive, and accept these patches and integrate them into the 
>> codebase.  From
>> my side we'll do whatever it takes to make that happen.  Just tell us 
>> what we
>> have to do.
>
> I think the patch should be available in the SF tracker and tested by 
> users who want the functionality. Number of unofficial patches are 
> living like this. It took two years for my first patch (subject prefix 
> numbering) to be integrated in the CVS. ;-)
>
> -- 
> Tokio Kikuchi, tkikuchi@ is.kochi-u.ac.jp
> http://weather.is.kochi-u.ac.jp/
>
>
--
Tobias Eigen
Executive Director

Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa
http://www.kabissa.org

* Kabissa's vision is for a socially, economically, politically, and 
environmentally vibrant Africa, supported by a strong network of 
effective civil society organizations. *