[Mailman-Users] New user - Mailman question

[Brad Knowles]

At 12:31 AM -0400 2004-08-21, Charles Mikecz Vamossy wrote:

>  Thank you for your clarification.  I had no idea - why would I? - that
>  signing up for a mailing list would generate all these individual
>  e-mails coming in from people, as opposed emails coming from the list
>  itself.  Had I known that - given that I am using my ISP's spamblocker
>  software - would have never signed up.

	The problem is that the mail *does* come from the list.  However, 
the "From:" address in the header is that of the individual sender, 
and not the list.  Your spamblocker software is doing something 
incredibly stupid by responding to the "From:" header, and annoying 
anyone and everyone who ever sends you e-mail via virtually any 
mailing list that you will ever subscribe to, since virtually all 
mailing list software works the same way at this level.

>  Using Mailman - as opposed to some of the other popular list programs
>  has turned into a giant headache.  I understand that it is complex and
>  has many parameters, but I did not think it would cause so much trouble.
>  Now I understand why our subsribers are so unhappy with it.

	Mailman is simpler than most mailing list management packages, 
and the authors have gone to significant lengths to make it 
relatively easy to download, install, configure, and administer. 
However, there are some fundamental complexities in this process that 
you cannot escape.

>  BTW, I participate in a number of mailing lists on Yahoo and never had
>  the this happen to me.  All the mail - whether individual or digest form
>  - come from a single source, which is enabled on my spamblocker to get
>  through.

	You could easily have done the same for Mailman.  Search for a 
string like "Sender: mailman-users-bounces at python.org" in the header, 
and whitelist any message that matches.  Easy.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.