[Mailman-Users] Help for mailto: in footer.

[Mark Sapiro]

bob 001 wrote:
>
>Can someone please help? Following text in footer is not working and appears
>broken when it reaches to yahoo and/or gmail.
>
>mailto:%(list_name)s@
>%(host_name)s?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsubscribe %(user_password)s


First of all, it is a very bad idea to put the user's password in this
footer. User's are very careless about not removing footers and
signatures from replies and forwards of messages. With a footer as
above, you will have users posting their passwords back to the list.
Even if it is an announce only list, they will still forward their
passwords elsewhere.

Second, the address to which to send the unsubscribe command is
%(list_name)s-request@%(host_name)s, not %(list_name)s@%(host_name)s.

Third, the footer is always in a text/plain part so URIs are not
necessarily recognized as such or rendered as "clickable" by various
MUAs (mail clients). There's little you can do about that, but putting
the URI in <> brackets may help. E.g.
<mailto:%(list_name)s-request@%(host_name)s?subject=unsubscribe>.

Also, simply mailing to the -leave or -unsubscribe address will also
work. E.g., <mailto:%(list_name)s-unsubscribe@%(host_name)s>.

Further, It is redundant to put and unsubscribe command in both the
subject and the body of a message to -request. Both will be processed,
and the first will result in a confirmation request email even if the
second succeeds. If you really insist on including the users password,
and you want it in the body and not the subject, I suggest
<mailto:%(list_name)s-request@%(host_name)s?subject=commands&body=unsubscribe%%20%(user_password)s>.
Note the %%20. The % is doubled so Mailman's interpolation will convert
it to a single %, and you need %20 instead of a space because space
will terminate the URI.

Finally, note that %(user_password)s only works if the list is
personalized.

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