As you know, Mailman 2.1 has long been in maintenance-only mode.
Mailman 2.2 was where we were going to add new features and update the
user interface, without changing the basic model. Mailman 3 was where
we were going to fix the model and modernize the architecture to allow
for better embedded use. Mark has been doing an incredible job fixing
Mailman 2.1, and forward porting these fixes to Mailman 2.2. I have
been working on Mailman 3 and have released several alphas.
The current state of affairs is not ideal though. Neither 2.2 nor 3.0
has been released, there is confusion in the community as to which
version to develop patches for, and frustration on our part that we
have divided efforts and not as much community participation as we'd
like.
Mark and I have decided therefore to combine our efforts under Mailman
3, and we invite you to join us. Working together, I feel confident
that we can have a solid release of Mailman 3 very soon, hopefully by
the end of the year. Patrick Koetter and his group have expressed
interest and resources in helping jump start the new Mailman user
interface, which will be built on top of Mailman 3's REST interface.
What do /you/ want to work on? :)
Here's the plan: Mark is going to put a 2.1.13 bug fix release out
soon and will continue to fix only the most important bugs on the 2.1
branch. He'll forward port those fixes to the 2.2 branch for the few
people who are running it from source, but there will never be a
Mailman 2.2 release. For all practical purposes, Mailman 2.2 is
dead. Mark will be joining me to focus all new development work on
Mailman 3.0.
I hope this brings clarity to where we're going, and I hope that the
renewed and concentrated efforts will encourage you to pull down the
Mailman 3.0 code or alphas and begin testing and developing for it.
Enjoy, -Barry