[Mailman-Users] Can this be done using Mailman?

[DAve]

Good morning/Afternoon/evening,

I've been looking for a possible solution now for a few days, checked 
the docs, archives, search engines, etc. No clue.

We maintain several large mail lists for a client, excess of 40k 
subscribers, all opt-in - verified - signed in blood addresses. We use 
verp to purge the list of mis behaving subscribers. People who use the 
AOL spam button to unsubscribe and their ilk. No issues there, all is 
working fine.

The client is asking for the ability to manage list messages in a new 
way. We are unable to do so using our current software, ezmlm. Here is 
the scoop. The client has twenty mail lists, and subscribers can sign up 
for any number of lists. The client wants to be able to send a common 
message to some lists without sending duplicate messages if a subscriber 
is on more then one list. The key is some lists must be excluded from 
receiving the message. Think distributors vs retailers vs wholesales vs 
consumers.

This brought us to looking at Mailman topics.

As we understand it you can have topics, and subscribers will only 
receive messages directed at the topics they subscribe to. This means a 
subscriber could subscribe to [members], [stores], and [retailers], if 
we send a message to [stores] they will receive it. If we send a message 
to all topics, subscribers will receive only one message. This is what 
we want.

However, if we send a message only to [stores] and to [members], 
subscribers will receive two copies. This is not what we want. In order 
to have a subscriber receive only one copy of the message, the message 
must go to ALL topics, [stores], [members], [retailers], [malls], 
[gas_stations], [gas_stations_with_inside_bathrooms], 
[gas_stations_with_outside_bathrooms_in_north_dakota], etc. Not what we 
want.

Is this correct? Can we send a message to only three of twenty topics 
and subscribers who are only subscribed to one of the seventeen excluded 
topics will receive no message, and subscribers subscribed to two of the 
three included topics will receive only one message?

It is not clear to us from the docs or from any information we have been 
able to find. Thanks,

DAve
-- 
Three years now I've asked Google why they don't have a
logo change for Memorial Day. Why do they choose to do logos
for other non-international holidays, but nothing for
Veterans?

Maybe they forgot who made that choice possible.