[Mailman-Users] Removing archives query.

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

John Fitzsimons writes:

 > If it is then are there any plans for us CPanel users to be able to
 > remove archives in a future Mailman release please ?

John, it's not called "free software" because you pay nothing for it.
It's call "free software" because you, and I, and the general public
are licensed to do almost anything with the software.  The only
condition in this license that matters is that if we redistribute any
form of Mailman, we must provide the *recipient* with the source code
of the program.  (Note: *not* "the public"; that's important.)

The company that provides cPanel has taken advantage of this license
offered to *all* in the public to incorporate GNU Mailman in their
hosting product.  This relationship is entirely one-sided: they take
the Mailman code, but have *never* provided any input to development
or support of Mailman users that I know of.

Yes, CPanel has its conveniences.  It also has its inconveniences, and
*those are entirely your problem* because we have no claim at all on
cPanel's attention, by the *vendor's* choice.  Please stop posting
about cPanel here, and take responsibility for *your* choice.

If you want to help, including helping yourself, you can

(1) Go talk to your service provider, and see if you can get them to
    give you a copy of the cPanel version of Mailman.  Make a diff and
    post it online, and to the mailman-developers at python.org mailing
    list.  According to the Mailman license, if you can get somebody
    to voluntarily give you a copy of a legitimately received copy,
    you do have the right to do that.  In the future, if you have a
    problem (bug) with cPanel Mailman, you can point the developers to
    that copy, and (if they have time), you may get some help.

    Missing features are still your problem, whether they are
    something that cPanel has subtracted or something that Mailman
    could do but doesn't.  You might get some sympathy for the latter,
    of course.

(2) Talk to the cPanel people, find out what their plans are, and post
    the answers here.  If they ask you *not* to do that, post simply
    that fact.  Better yet, add either kind of answer to the FAQ on
    cPanel.

These are not things Mailman developers can do *for* you.  These
companies talk only to their customers (if they even do that).

Alteratively, you could bite the bullet, and ask for help in
installing your own Mailman, and have access to all the facilities, as
well as receiving much more detailed (not to mention enthusiastic)
help on this list and (often) in private.

It's called "free software" because *the choice is yours*.