I am looking to set-up a mailing list for a group of people but was hoping there is a way to have sub-lists. For example, I'd like to have one group be everyone, then another group that is regional. I was thinking of " group-all@mydomain.com" for messages covering everyone but they could send a message to "group-sacramento@mydomain.com" to and it will only go to those that are interested in "Sacramento" specific messages. I would like to make subscribers opt-in or opt-out of the regional. At this point, I have not selected a hosting service yet. I wish to bring my own domain to wherever I choose. I'm not sure if someone that just advertises that they use Mailman is sufficient or if I need to find a hosting company that provides shell access for setup is what I need. I'm sure there is some Wiki or something if this sub-lists works but I must be using the wrong search term for what I want.
Another thing that is important for me is I do NOT want to archive or cache messages, at least for not much more than a day. For me, I work for a large corporation. While it is a large corporation, those of us wishing this list are like bastard step-children. We work with others from the same corporation but we operate under completely different rules and a different hierarchy. We seldom see each other because there is usually only one of us working in an area at a time and we are spread out geographically. We are represented by the same union that the majority of the employees of the corporation are represented by, but since we do not have a common work area, we have no way of having "water-cooler talk". As it is "water-cooler talk", we do not wish it to be officially a part of the union nor the corporation. If there is any concern about something said, as the facilitator of communications, I wish to just say I do not save communications. If a group member wishes to save something, that is up to them, as is the case with how we are doing email now.
I will also wish to add some type of disclaimer that no one will probably give it much thought, but it will state that statements made are the of the sole responsibility of the author of the statement and they are not the official opinion of the corporation nor the union and the maintainer of the list does not archive messages. I'm sure I'll come up with much better wording than that but I'm sure you get the gist.
I'm just hoping I've found the right product and can receive some advice from those that have set up lists.
On 06/30/2015 12:56 PM, Ron Webb wrote:
I am looking to set-up a mailing list for a group of people but was hoping there is a way to have sub-lists. For example, I'd like to have one group be everyone, then another group that is regional. I was thinking of " group-all@mydomain.com" for messages covering everyone but they could send a message to "group-sacramento@mydomain.com" to and it will only go to those that are interested in "Sacramento" specific messages. I would like to make subscribers opt-in or opt-out of the regional. At this point, I have not selected a hosting service yet. I wish to bring my own domain to wherever I choose. I'm not sure if someone that just advertises that they use Mailman is sufficient or if I need to find a hosting company that provides shell access for setup is what I need. I'm sure there is some Wiki or something if this sub-lists works but I must be using the wrong search term for what I want.
Mailman can do this in a few different ways, all with standard list configuration settings available to the list owner.
One possibility is 'topics'. You could have a list with several defined topics like 'Sacramento'. You define regular expressions to be matched against the message's Subject:. These can be simple like
a Sacramento topic with a regex of 'sac' a Washington topic with a regex of 'wash'
and so on. Then, by default, a user gets all messages, but if she subscribes to the Sacramento topic and also elects to receive posts that match no topic, she will receive posts whose Subject: contains ...sac... and those whose Subject : matches none of the topic regexes (keywords), but not posts with ...wash..., etc. in the Subject:
Other ways to do this are umbrella lists and sibling lists.
See the FAQs at <http://wiki.list.org/x/4030574> and <http://wiki.list.org/x/4030540>. Also, see <http://wiki.list.org/x/8683547>.
Another thing that is important for me is I do NOT want to archive or cache messages, at least for not much more than a day.
Archiving is a list option which is generally on by default, but easily turned off.
I will also wish to add some type of disclaimer that no one will probably give it much thought, but it will state that statements made are the of the sole responsibility of the author of the statement and they are not the official opinion of the corporation nor the union and the maintainer of the list does not archive messages. I'm sure I'll come up with much better wording than that but I'm sure you get the gist.
Mailman can add a header and/or a footer to each message with any text you want.
I'm just hoping I've found the right product and can receive some advice from those that have set up lists.
I think Mailman can do what you want. We are here to help.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Ron Webb wrote:
If there is any concern about something said, as the facilitator of communications, I wish to just say I do not save communications. If a group member wishes to save something, that is up to them, as is the case with how we are doing email now.
I will also wish to add some type of disclaimer that no one will probably give it much thought, but it will state that statements made are the of the sole responsibility of the author of the statement and they are not the official opinion of the corporation nor the union and the maintainer of the list does not archive messages. I'm sure I'll come up with much better wording than that but I'm sure you get the gist.
This part could be tricky. Most list members will "save" (i.e. forget to delete) at least some if not most of the messages they receive. Lots of them will contain quoted material written by other list members. In other words, none of you will have much control over how much of what you say on the list will be available to others later if they get access to list members' mailboxes.
Are these corporate mailboxes you'll be using, or private ones? I've never used it, but you can have regular expression in ban_list to prevent people subscribing with their work addresses.
Peter Shute
Peter Shute writes:
Ron Webb wrote:
I will also wish to add some type of disclaimer that no one will probably give it much thought, but it will state that statements made are the of the sole responsibility of the author of the statement and they are not the official opinion of the corporation nor the union and the maintainer of the list does not archive messages. I'm sure I'll come up with much better wording than that but I'm sure you get the gist.
This part could be tricky. Most list members will "save" (i.e. forget to delete) at least some if not most of the messages they receive. Lots of them will contain quoted material written by other list members. In other words, none of you will have much control over how much of what you say on the list will be available to others later if they get access to list members' mailboxes.
That's certainly true, but I suppose Ron is mostly worried here about his *personal* liability as list admin, both legal and ethically to the members whose posts are supposed to be off-the-record. Compare http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/rbarip.html. Centralized list archives are an obvious target, and I suspect that subpoena'ing everyone in the company would be less likely to convince a judge.
Are these corporate mailboxes you'll be using, or private ones? I've never used it, but you can have regular expression in ban_list to prevent people subscribing with their work addresses.
That's a good idea for dealing with corporate policy toward mailbox use, but as Jamie points out, if there's a court involved, anything can be subpoena'ed.
Of course all of the above is based on US law, your venue may vary.
Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Are these corporate mailboxes you'll be using, or private ones? I've never used it, but you can have regular expression in ban_list > to prevent people subscribing with their work addresses.
That's a good idea for dealing with corporate policy toward mailbox use, but as Jamie points out, if there's a court involved, anything can be subpoena'ed.
True. I was thinking more along the lines of someone taking an unofficial peek at a few mailboxes to compile an unofficial hit list.
Peter Shute
participants (4)
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Mark Sapiro -
Peter Shute -
Ron Webb -
Stephen J. Turnbull