[Mailman-Users] What would your dream Mailman web interface look like?

[J.B. Nicholson-Owens]

Andrew Stuart wrote:
> Any killer features that you’d like to see in the perfect Mailman web
> interface?

Thanks for asking.

Such an interface would work completely without running any Javascript 
to do anything the interface can do. If Javascript is turned off in the 
browser, the interface should work completely. If Javascript is turned 
on in the browser, the Javascript should be free software and clearly 
labeled as free Javascript so the LibreJS add-on will recognize it and 
let the user run it. But no Javascript would be required to use the 
Mailman interface at all. I see no reason why anyone's Mailman task 
should require Javascript.

The perfect Mailman web interface would do what it needs to do with 
links, form submissions, and CSS but work fully with text-only browsers 
like lynx, links, and so on.

Disabled persons access is, of course, something a perfect interface 
would offer. I am sure others can point you to the relevant 
standards/linters to implement and validate this.

Also, the perfect Mailman web interface would let admins use gratis, 
auto-renewing[1] TLS certificates such as what letsencrypt.org is 
proposing to do[2]. Until we can get away from the current 
ridiculousness to publish encrypted websites, letsencrypt.org is the 
most promising practical means I know of to increase the number of 
encrypted websites. A Mailman web interface should offer a 1-click means 
of acquiring a letsencrypt.org certificate that automatically renews 
itself until the admin clicks the button again to stop using that 
letsencrypt.org certificate. And it should be trivially easy to make all 
visits to the site use encryption.

The defaults for this web interface are critical because they will be 
what most installations will offer (I believe most users of most 
programs don't change or investigate defaults).



[1] I know this automation requires the interface's back-end to do the 
renewing using letsencrypt.org API, but from the admin's perspective 
this is automatic certificate renewing.

[2] Obviously I don't know the details of letsencrypt.org's setup 
because they've not yet begun production use of their service.