[Mailman-Users] Re: 6 questions (from a total newbie on a virtual account)

[Menega Sabidussi]

hello,

on january 25th i received helpful responses to my "6 questions" 
which i'd like to say thanks for. 
please excuse the long delay and seeming rudeness :( - 
i was totally out of circulation for a while.

[menega:]
> 4. i've gathered that when moving my list to mailman i can
> mass-subscribe users. in what form and when in the procedure are they
> issued the random passwords i have seen mentioned here?

[bekj:]
> It's something you do from the command line, with root access,
> and yes you get random passwords.

ah well... no root access for me, 
no getting at any of the config files.

a follow-up on this for the total newbies 
who are stuck with mailman on a virtual account (like i am): 
when mass-subscribing people in batches of 30 
from the web-administration feature 
a welcome mail will go out to each subscriber 
containing (as mentioned above) a random password - 
provided one has turned the welcome mail feature on. 
this of course alerts subscribers that you are moving them whereupon 
they - natually curious little beasts :) - will trot over to the site 
and begin getting in your way while you are still transferring 
and setting options for them. 
the only other way i figured was to turn the welcome mail off, 
feed them all in and then call-up their subscription options pages 
one-by-weary-one and press the "send me password reminder" button 
which will then inform them what has been going on. 

is there a more efficient method for goodness sakes?

[menega:] 
> 5. where is the password file stored?
> i would like to hitch it together with ftp access permissions.

[bekj:]
> Somewhere in a Python database file thingy.  I have no idea.
> You'd need a python script to get them out.
right. i've already scrapped the idea due to the virtual account
problem.

this brings me to something else.
increasingly mailman is the mailing list program of choice for providers
offering this feature thrown into their account packages. i have combed
through x-hundred providers and contacted roughly a 3rd of them with
further questions - most of them were offering mailman, of course in an
un-get-attable pre-install. i can't afford a dedicated server for a
non-profit organisation like mine but need to run it all under its own
domain name. so now i've acquired one of those virtual pre-installed
accounts. sigh. more and more people will be bumping into the problems i
am tearing my hair out over. now maybe the developers couldn't care less
which i would understand as this is not a paid project but i still think
it would be a shame not to address these issues. 

virtual account mailman list owners need help with:
- getting the archives out so we can move providers;
- getting our grubby little fingers on 
  individualized configuration files;
- stripping the mime mess 
  (we do not have the access to tweak this ourselves);
- stopping attachments so our subscribers won't even be tempted 
  to open anything virii infected.

we need this soon - ideally in an add-on form independant of major
updates the provider would have to make. 
sorry for sounding so ungratefully demanding - 
you have a really good program here.

thanks again.

regards,
menega sabidussi