[Mailman-Users] Questions regarding Listserv service

[Bob Stout]

On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, Emily Bohigian wrote:

> I am on the market for a new listserv service and I had a few questions I
> could not find answers to in the website:
>
> 	Is Mailman accessible from email?
> 	How does a user unsubscribe from email?

Yes, if you send a "HELP" message to <list_name>-request@<domain>, you
receive a list of commands that also work with the "-request" address.

> 	Can the administrator bulk upload email addresses to the list?

Yes, both from the web-based subscription management screen, or via
command line utility.

> 	Can a user reply both publicly and privately?

I'm using 2.0.9 and the answer is yes, but with difficulty. The most
direct way is to use the "reply-to" setting, but this introduces problems
for some subscribers. If your list has some measure of control over the
mail system(s) which will be accessing it, this may or may not be a
problem. OTOH, if your subscriber list, like mine, is drawn from a diverse
population of people subscribing from work and home, it can be a headache
and there's no easy answer I've discovered.

> 	Is there digest and index capability?

Yes. There are also methods I haven't tried yet to make the archives
searchable. I've had mixed success importing pre-existing (Listproc)
archives, but that has as much to do with my not paying attention to the
amount of available virtual storage as with any inherent problems with
Mailman.

> 	Are there ads on Mailman?  If so, are we paid for these ads?

Not really... The "Delivered by Mailman", "Powered by Python", and GNU
logos appear at the bottom of the pages, but could probably be edited out.

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