[Mailman-Users] Feature Request: Selective Mass Subscription

[Mark Sapiro]

Cyndi Norwitz wrote:

>Please let me know if I should post this elsewhere too.
>
>The Mass Subscribe feature has two settings: on and off.


No it doesn't.


>My
>ISP has chosen to turn off Mass Subscribe.  Only the invite feature is
>left.


This is not a setting. It is a code modification done somewhere
downstream of the Mailman project.


>My request is for an intermediate step that the provider can set.
>Something like subscribing one name at a time (so it's too much of a pain
>for a spammer to put in a thousand names) or up to 10 a day, or something
>that will make a large provider feel more comfortable but not completely
>remove the feature from the users.


Turning off mass subscribe and leaving only mass invite is a
modification not done by us. This request might better be directed to
whoever made this modification.

We fully sympathize with the difficulty and frustration of dealing with
users who can't manage to successfully accept an invitation, and the
problem of explaining to the VIP that the software doesn't allow this.

I can see that actual site settings something like

MAXIMUM_LIST_OWNER_SUBSCRIBES = 10
LIST_OWNER_SUBSCRIBE_WINDOW = days(7)

to allow at most 10 subscribes in any 7 day period, might be an
alternative that ISPs would use, but OTOH, I think that an ISP that
choses to disable mass subscribe has likely done this in response to
large ISP/email services that demand that lists be fully confirmed
opt-in in order to be whitelisted, so they may not be willing to allow
even that.

Before I invest any effort in implementing such an option, I'd be
interested in an opinion from your ISP as to whether they would use it.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan