[Mailman-Users] Subscribers accessing private list archives

[Richard Damon]

On 8/19/11 9:36 AM, Prietz, Ian wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I help manage a series of mailing lists. It is currently configured for me to manually subscribe users. We do not offer the subscribers the opportunity to manage their own subscription...they are required to be a part of this list. We do not have passwords setup for subscribers, so they do not have to do the periodic password updates.
>
> I also have the lists setup to privately archive.
>
> I am looking for a way to give subscribers a generic password that would authenticate them to be able to view the archives (so they can revisit any past messages). Note, I do not want them to be able to access their subscriber settings to be able to unsubscribe themselves. I would almost like to just have everyone be given a generic password (that I could give out upon request), so they can view the private archives. That's all.
>
> Any ideas? Our Mailman access is restricted just to accessing our mailing lists administration pages on the web. Our service is hosted...I do not have direct access to the server.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ian
Perhaps you could create a dummy subscription that you give people the 
information for. That way you could give people the password for that 
subscription. Just need to watch to make sure no one plays with its 
settings.

Also, they are still able to unsubscribe themselves, as they can get an 
unsubscription message sent to their email and then use it to confirm 
the unsubscription.

Mailman is setup to allow people to unsubscribe (and a hosted service 
isn't going to let you change that), if you want to not allow this, your 
best bet is with social/political rules with appropriate penalties for 
violations.

-- 
Richard Damon