[PYTHON META-SIG] My thoughts on mailing lists

[Barry A. Warsaw]

Now that Majordomo (MD) is up and running on python.org, I've gone
ahead and created this mailing list so we can talk about mailing
lists. :-)

I think I've caught up on all the messages posted recently regarding
sigs and their lists.  Here's what I propose (note: I've already set
up the pdo-admin list for system administration of the physical
machine).

SIG lists
=========

The main exploder address for all SIG lists will be
<topic>-sig@python.org.  Each will also have MD handling administrivia
at <topic>-sig-request@python.org.  Note that you can always get to MD
via majordomo@python.org, but you have to specify the list for the
command.

Each list will also have owner-<topic>-sig@python.org address so that
people can get directly to a human or humans who are responsible for
the list.  Someone must be willing to take responsibility for a list
in order to create it.  I don't want to own every list (although I'm
happy to `own' the MD infrastructure itself).  There will have to be
some cooperation between the list owner and someone with an account on
python.org for some administrivia, and list creation, but not
day-to-day activities so hopefully this can be kept to a minimum.  I'm
happy to be that contact.

The SIG's will be archived but not digestified, and the raw archives
will be `get'able via MD.  Every SIG list should have an info file
(<topic>-sig.info under /home/majordomo/Lists) generated by the list
owner, and a password file (<topic>-sig.passwd).  The owner of the
list can choose the password.

Every SIG list will be advertised (i.e. it shows up via the MD `which'
command), and have an `open' subscription policy (i.e. you can
un/subscribe yourself automatically, but approval is required if the
address does not match the one you're sending from).

As for moderation, I'm inclined to go with no moderation, and no
restrict-post.  Moderation means that all posts get bounced to the
list owner, who must then resend it with an Approve: header.
Restrict-post means that unapproved messages can only be posted by
members of the list (otherwise they get bounced to the owner who can
resubmit with an Approved: header).  No-mod, no-restrict is the least
painful for the owner, but I guess we should leave it up to the SIG
owner to decide the post policy.

These MD commands can be restricted to list members only: get, index,
info, which, who.  My preference for the SIG lists is to make these
non-private (non-members can use them too).  Again, we can decide this
on a per-list basis.

Guido mentioned putting mail robots on some aliases which just send
back the SIG's info.  Well, we probably don't need this because if
someone sends a message to <topic>-sig-request@python.org, perhaps
with the word `help' in the body, MD will by default send them some MD
help information, and then the list specific info file.

So... here are the aliases I propose setting up:

  General:
    sigs       -- alias to majordomo
    sigs-info  -- alias to sigs
    owner-sigs -- alias to majordomo-owner (or pdo-admin?)

  Topics:
    meta-sig     -- a SIG about SIGs (owner: bwarsaw)
    locator-sig  -- Python Locator Service SIG (owner: peveritt)
    docproj-sig  -- Documentation Project SIG (owner: mclay)
    gui-sig      -- Common GUI SIG (owners: jfulton, klm)
    matrix-sig   -- Matrix Algebra SIG (owner: jfulton)
    workshop-sig -- Workshop Organization SIG (owner: volunteers?)

PSA Aliases
===========

The PSA exploder ought to be essentially similar to a SIG list, with
two differences.  Subscription policy ought to be closed so that only
paid-in-full members[*] are on the list, and we should restrict-post
to members only.  I think the list should be advertised, but I'm
flexible on the private-able commands.

    psa              -- alias to majordomo for robot reply
    psa-info         -- alias to psa
    psa-list         -- exploder
    psa-list-request -- alias to majordomo
    owner-psa        -- rmasse, bwarsaw, guido, mclay, klm, peveritt,
                        jfulton, nick

 [*]so when are we gonna see PSA checks from you non-CNRI'ers? :-)

Python Aliases
==============

Python aliases would be similar to the PSA aliases, except that
subscription policy would be open, and there'd be no restrict-post.
For now python-list and python-list-request would be aliased to cwi.nl
but we'd move them over at some point.  Since these are probably going
to be fairly large lists (do you know how many people, Guido?), we may
need to investigate something like the bulk_mail program which
supposedly speeds up sendmail delivered lists.

Guido suggests setting up python-help, python-bugs, and python-gripes.
Do we need all these?  Fine with me if we really do, but maybe
python-help or python-bugs would suffice.

python-developers?

python-users?  How would this differ from python-list?

==========

Okay, so what do you all think?  Have I missed anything?  Anything not
make sense?  At this point only pdo-admin and meta-sig actually exist.

-Barry

=================
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=================