[Mailman-Users] Making a Case for Upgrading MailMan from 2.1.17

[Mark Sapiro]

On 6/22/16 11:04 PM, Dave Nathanson wrote:
> I'd like some help in making a case to convince my hosting company to upgrade from Mailman 2.1.17. 


See the NEWS file at
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mailman-coders/mailman/2.1/view/head:/NEWS>
for all the features and bug fixes since 2.1.17.


> My primary issue with MM 2.1.17 is about list messages from members who don't have their human names configured into their email clients, resulting in a list message from an unknown. It is just from "via listname <listname at example.com>" 
> Since I'm still stuck on 2.1.17. I don't know what I am missing in the newer versions. I just know that it's been over 2 years since 2.1.17 which has an annoying omission due the the whole DEMARC thing. 


You have set from_is_list to Munge From. As Andrew says, in 2.1.18 and
beyond, there is a more selective dmarc_moderation_action setting that
does this munging only for post From: a domain with DMARC policy
p=reject and optionally p=quarantine.  Also, at some point (see the NEWS
file for when) this munging was fixed to use the user's real_name list
setting if the display name was not in the email.


> What are the advantages of upgrading beyond 2.1.17? 
> How best to make a good case to convince them to upgrade their MailMan?
> What version should I ask for? 


You should look at the NEWS for all the things that are enhanced/fixed
since 2.1.17. You should ask for the latest possible version. Note that
the Mailman that manages this and over 300 other @python.org lists is at
the head of the 2.1 branch at
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mailman-coders/mailman/2.1/>. The latest
'official release' is 2.1.22 and 2.1.23 is coming soon.

It is possible, even likely, that your hosting company has installed a
downstream packege (.rpm or .deb) for which there is no upgrade
available. In this case, upgrading may be tricky, but at least if it is
Debian/Ubuntu, see <https://wiki.list.org/x/17891606>, and in any case,
we're here to help.

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