[Mailman-Users] using topics

[Mark Sapiro]

On 11/25/2015 04:52 AM, Lucio Chiappetti wrote:
> 
> I have some questions about topics.
> 
> - can a user select to receive all messages EXCLUDING a particular
>   topic ? It looks like the interface allows to subscribe to one topic,
>   and also to receive topic-less messages ... but what about one
>   wants to receive ONLY topic-less messages ?


There is an out of date branch at
<https://code.launchpad.net/~msapiro/mailman/topics> that implements the
ability for users to choose to receive only messages that match no
topic, but there are other ways to accomplish this. E.g., you can define
the topic 'no_topic' with a regexp which won't match any message. E.g.
'(?!)' - this is a negative lookahead which only matches something which
doesn't begin with a null string (every string has a null string at
every position). Then users who want all but the trade union messages
can subscribe to no_topic and also elect to receive messages which match
no topic.


>   Assuming messages are classified as :
> 
>    - topic trade union
>    - no topic
> 
>   Shall one create a dummy placeholder topic which will be never
>   populated ? or how can one assign a default topic ?


As suggested above, just create a regular topic with a regexp that
matches nothing.


> - can the mailman administrator assign topics based on the originator
>   address instead of Subject or Keyword or regexp in the first n lines ?


No.


>   This may allow to tag the topics automatically (instead of relying on
>   the originator using special tags, which is sort of hopeless)


You could implement a custom handler (see
<http://wiki.list.org/x/4030615> to be in the pipeline before Tagger
which would add a Keywords: header based on sender.

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