[Mailman-Users] Users to change their address themselves

[Todd Pfaff]

On Sun, 19 Sep 1999, Listwrangler wrote:

> This would be real handy. However, it would need to require the confirm
> option so that the new address verifies it really wishes to be subscribed.
> Otherwise, you could subscribe yourself, then just change your addy to
> whatever person you want to get the junk mail.

why not just have a "change address" option that takes an old address, a
new address (and optionally a new password) and then does an unsubscribe
and a subscribe?  do not wait for the unsubscribe to succeed before 
doing the new subscribe.  whether or not confirmation happens will depend
on the existing subscription confirmation setting for the list.

for that matter, what advantage does a "change address" function have over
simply unsubscribing and re-subscribing?

the only problem i can see is that if the old address is 'dead' then the
unsubscribe can not be confirmed.  so be it.  leave it alone and it
becomes like any other 'dead' address in a list.  what does mailman
normally do with addresses that are consistenly undeliverable?

> However, this is no worse than how things are already. Mailman can already
> be used to subscribe an unwilling user. Just type in that user's email
> address, set the password, and let it go. If the address looks plausible,
> the list administrator will approve it.  Eg, I'll subscribe
> joeuser at yahoo.com but I won't subscribe president at whitehouse.gov .

this is exactly why subscription confirmation is used.  this should only
be possible if you have disabled confirmation.

> If you have set Mailman to send a subscription announcement, then the
> unwilling subscriber gets a message that tells them they've been subscribed
> and what to do if they want to be unsubscribed, which tends to discourage
> pranks. However, a high volume list could clog somebody's email box if they
> don't log on and don't get the 'you have subscribed' email for a couple of
> days.

the unwilling user should also get a subscription confirmation request and
the subscription will not take place until they confirm.

--
Todd Pfaff                         \  Email: pfaff at mcmaster.ca
Computing and Information Services  \ Voice: (905) 525-9140 x22920
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McMaster University                   \
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