[Mailman-Users] Aliases ...

[Steve Burling]

--On Saturday, May 17, 2003 4:09 PM -0400 David Whitehurst 
<dlwhitehurst at comcast.net> wrote:

> I still get service unavailable?  Any ideas?
>
> And, why is no one answering this list today?

To which I reply:

Let me get this straight.  You post a question to the list around 1pm on a 
Saturday, and three hours later you're complaining that no one has answered 
your question?  And it's a question whose answer would be pretty obvious to 
anyone who actually knows something about how mail works?

Let me suggest a couple of things:

1) Learn something more about how mail works before trying to install
   and run mailing list software.
2) Read all the documentation that came with the Mailman distribution.
3) Read the archives of the mailing list.
4) See the Mailman FAQ at <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py>.
5) When asking questions on a free, volunteer's list, don't assume that
   people will spend all their time reading the list, waiting eagerly for
   the chance to answer your questions.
6) Once you've done 1-4, and still not found an answer, when you do post
   a question to the list, give details about the environment in which
   you're working.  Server hardware, OS, which MTA (and which version),
   even which version of Mailman you're working with.  All of that info
   will let the helpful folks on this list help you solve your problem.

If you've been trying to install from RPMs, save yourself the trouble and 
install from source.  My reading of this list suggests that the RPMs are 
almost always more trouble than they're worth.

Above all, remember that the people on this list who try to help you are 
doing so out of the goodness of their hearts.  They don't get paid for it. 
They don't even get much recognition.  And (unlike me) they're mostly too 
polite to send out a note like this.  As someone who mostly lurks on this 
list, your mail just got on my very last nerve.  So don't take it (too) 
personally -- it could have been anyone who got to me today.

                                             -- Steve

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Burling                                    <mailto:srb at umich.edu>
University of Michigan, ICPSR                    Voice: +1 734 615.3779
330 Packard Street                               FAX:   +1 734 647.8700
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2910