[Mailman-Users] List Topics (was: accept_these_nonmembers not working)

[Brad Knowles]

On 12/16/07, Cyndi Norwitz quoted Stephen J. Turnbull:

>>    But you'll bother the Mailman developers because they do it for free?
>
>  I do not wish to take over the list with meta-discussion but your comments
>  are completely uncalled for.

IMO, the truth is somewhere between those two points.  Stephen may 
have been a bit harsh, but there's definitely a kernel of reality 
there.

>  When I found this mailing list, it appeared to be a general discussion list
>  for Mailman users.  As I said before, if I was mistaken about the purpose
>  of the list then I hope Mark or another list owner will correct me and
>  guide me to a more appropriate venue.

We have had numerous historical problems with users of software that 
have been more or less heavily customized by other groups (e.g., 
cPanel, Plesk, Apple, etc...), and because of the amount of changes 
that have been made to the code and to the method in which they 
install and administer their customized version, there is relatively 
little we can do to help their users.

If you've got a problem with Plesk's modified version of Mailman, you 
need to go talk to the Plesk guys.  If you've got a problem with 
cPanel's modified version of Mailman, you need to go talk to the 
cPanel guys, although we know from past experience that they're not 
that responsive.  If you've got a problem with Apple's modified 
version of Mailman, then don't even bother to go talk to Apple 
because we know from past experience that no one ever there will ever 
listen to you.

If you've got a problem with the Debian or Red Hat binary packages, 
those respective communities actually have their own support 
resources that you should be able to use for these sorts of things, 
and you should be able to contact their maintainers.


So, now the question becomes how does your ISP fit into this picture?

>                                                                  When I
>  can, I do direct them to better places for the information, which is what I
>  hope will happen here, if in fact I have been posting to the wrong place.

This is not necessarily the wrong place for you to be asking your 
questions.  Just keep in mind that we've been burned before by 
several other parties, and when people start talking about 
proprietary versions of Mailman, or non-standard configurations of 
Mailman, we may tend to get a little touchy.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>