[Mailman-Users] Feature questions

[Derek Simkowiak]

> >	What he would like is an MLM that can do a union of subscribers
> >based on the "To: " field of the email message.

> Duplicate elimination is really a problem that should be solved at the user
> end, not at the server end.

	Why?  One could just as easily state that maintaining recipient
lists is a problem that should be solved at the user end, not the server
end.

	This is a mailing list related feature that would make life easier
on the mail list users, which is the whole point of Mail List Managers.

> A simple filter that discards any message whose message id has already
> been seen can easily be written up in procmail, and is one of the
> examples in the man page.

a) procmail is fairly technical and difficult to set up for "average"  
people like my grandmother (who is an avid email user but couldn't edit a
syntax-sensitive text file to save her life).

b) There are many platforms which do not have procmail, such as MS-Windows
platforms, Internet appliances (I-Opener, WebTV, Dreamcast, etc.), and
AFAIK Macintosh.

c) Many/most email clients (on all platforms) do not have procmail's
advanced filtering capabilities, and even if they did, few "average"
people would know how to use those features.

	These are some of the reasons it would make a good MLM feature.

	Since it was implied that MailMan does not have this feature, my
other two questions still stand:

1) How hard would it be to implement this feature in MailMan, given its
architecture?

2) Are there any Python/MailMan programmers who would be willing to help
me with this?


Thanks,
Derek Simkowiak
dereks at kd-dev.com