[Mailman-Users] Announce only lists

[Paul Croft]

AMEN...I have been on the net since about 1990 and I think I have a pretty 
good handle on things too...but I don't know how many people just cannot 
figure out how to get off the darn lists...even with the simple 
instructions of YahooGroups and Topica...I still had problems...now I have 
moved to Mailman and all heck breaks loose!

A reply to unsubscribe function would be great as long as a confirmation 
was included...even better would be a direct unsubscribe and/or no mail 
command:

listname-unsubscribe at domain.com and/or
listname-nomail at domain.com

My lists are announce only too (humour ezines) and I find that 90% of my 
admin time is spent getting people to figure out how to unsubscribe...so 
much so that I took that function away from them completely and have set up 
my own handy-dandy unsubscribe page...I handle all the no mail and unsub 
requests currently...but it is a chore that I would love if Mailman could 
take it over.

Don't get me wrong...I love Mailman and find hosting my own lists (finally) 
a great experience....BUT I would just like to make it a little easier for 
everyone!

Paul


At 04:50 AM 22/03/02, Simon Gatrall wrote:
>My company's ISP only seems to support Mailman.  At first that seemed 
>fine, but the more that I look into it, the more it seems like the wrong 
>choice for my needs.  I have a list of customers that have asked to be 
>apprised of news from my company.  This is an announce only list that I 
>only plan to use a few times a year.  This isn't a spam list.
>
>Mailman can sort-of do announce-only lists, but it isn't well suited for 
>that.  For one thing, user passwords make some sort of sense if the list 
>is a daily part of someone's life, but they are completely unnecessary and 
>inappropriate for my use.  Mailman also needs to make the "unsubscribe" 
>method dead simple.  If I just reply to an announce-only list with the 
>word "remove" or "unsubscribe" anywhere in the message subject or body it 
>should grant my wish.  Instead there are EIGHT confusing headers to dig 
>through to find the right one.  This is just a lot of noise to most 
>people.  And then you have to figure out what your password is.  This is 
>fine for geeks but not for the average consumer.  (This is coming from a 
>geek that has been using and programming computers since '78 and has been 
>on the net since '87.)
>
>I do like the fact that Mailman will track bounces, keeps archives, and 
>provides a basic web based interface for administration and users 
>alike.  Is there a way to configure Mailman for my purposes?
>
>------------------------------
>Simon Gatrall