Hi folks, At the Association of C & C++ Users, we run 25 Majordomo mailing lists, these will be gradually moving over to Mailman.
Whilst running a couple of small lists for a local Caving club, a few issues came to light (whilst reading this bear in mind that unlike ACCU members, most of the Cavers are very much at the novice level with regard to email). Currently I'm running v2.0.3.
The confirm message:
I've modified verify.txt, most users found the original wording confusing. It now emphasizes the simplest way to confirm - hit reply button (but make sure the Subject line is etc, etc..).
Listinfo:
listinfo.html was also modified, as several users complained they were confused about the Admin address and Password boxes for viewing the subscriber list ("do I have to type something in these boxes to subscribe?" they ask). This, and the question about batched mail I've removed. People were checking the daily digest button, then complaining about receiving mail only once a day!
These are tweaks that beginners found useful, personally I found the default templates fine (I'm NOT suggesting changes to the distribution!).
Internet Mail Service (some sort of MS mailer?):
This broke the Subject line into two lines like so:
Subject: RE: Wcms-announce -- confirmation of subscription -- request 6715 58
Outlook Express:
The default installation of Outlook Express seems to send all text as a text/plain attachment, plus a text/html attachment. If subscribers don't return the default Subject: line (and try to use "confirm 330970" in the message body instead), Mailman can't understand the attachments and fails to confirm.
This problem was easy to fix by putting a mime stripper program into the request address alias entry (already do this to prevent viruses and attachments in the discussion lists). This strips out the html and flattens the text attachment to non-attached, allowing confirms to work correctly.
Features for Mailman 3
For me, the most useful feature on the Mailman todo list would be user accounts with multiple email addresses. It would be nice to have everything accessable under a single username and password (all mailing list subscriptions, and with a bit of custom scripting, website password protected areas, club subscription details, etc).
All the best, Pete.
Peter Hamilton, Webmaster: www.accu.org - The Association of C & C++ Users.
"PH" == Peter Hamilton <survey@hamil.org> writes:
PH> Hi folks, At the Association of C & C++ Users, we run 25
PH> Majordomo mailing lists, these will be gradually moving over
PH> to Mailman.Cool! Be sure to let me know if you want to be listed under
http://www.list.org/inthenews.html:)
PH> Whilst running a couple of small lists for a local Caving
PH> club, a few issues came to light (whilst reading this bear in
PH> mind that unlike ACCU members, most of the Cavers are very
PH> much at the novice level with regard to email). Currently I'm
PH> running v2.0.3.
| The confirm message:
| -------------------
PH> I've modified verify.txt, most users found the original
PH> wording confusing. It now emphasizes the simplest way to
PH> confirm - hit reply button (but make sure the Subject line is
PH> etc, etc..).This has been rewritten for MM2.1, and hopefully clarified.
| Listinfo:
| --------
PH> listinfo.html was also modified, as several users complained
PH> they were confused about the Admin address and Password boxes
PH> for viewing the subscriber list ("do I have to type something
PH> in these boxes to subscribe?" they ask). This, and the
PH> question about batched mail I've removed. People were
PH> checking the daily digest button, then complaining about
PH> receiving mail only once a day!Do you mean the address/password boxes for private rosters?
PH> These are tweaks that beginners found useful, personally I
PH> found the default templates fine (I'm NOT suggesting changes
PH> to the distribution!).Okay, but if you have suggestions, I'm happy to look at them!
| Internet Mail Service (some sort of MS mailer?):
| ---------------------
| This broke the Subject line into two lines like so:
PH> Subject: RE: Wcms-announce -- confirmation of subscription
PH> -- request 6715 58I've seen reports of this before, and it could get worse in MM2.1 since the cookie is longer now. I should probably just shorten it to "confirm <cookie>".
| Outlook Express:
| ---------------
PH> The default installation of Outlook Express seems to send
PH> all text as a text/plain attachment, plus a text/html
PH> attachment. If subscribers don't return the default Subject:
PH> line (and try to use "confirm 330970" in the message body
PH> instead), Mailman can't understand the attachments and fails
PH> to confirm.Yeah, I really want to get some sort of demimeing support into MM2.1. We'll see...
PH> This problem was easy to fix by putting a mime stripper
PH> program into the request address alias entry (already do this
PH> to prevent viruses and attachments in the discussion lists).
PH> This strips out the html and flattens the text attachment to
PH> non-attached, allowing confirms to work correctly.
PH> Features for Mailman 3 For me, the most useful feature on the
PH> Mailman todo list would be user accounts with multiple email
PH> addresses. It would be nice to have everything accessable
PH> under a single username and password (all mailing list
PH> subscriptions, and with a bit of custom scripting, website
PH> password protected areas, club subscription details, etc).Yep, no question, that'll be the biggest feature of 3.0.
-Barry
@ Barry A. Warsaw (barry@digicool.com) :
PH> Subject: RE: Wcms-announce -- confirmation of subscription PH> -- request 6715 58I've seen reports of this before, and it could get worse in MM2.1 since the cookie is longer now. I should probably just shorten it to "confirm <cookie>".
Don't forget that, in mailman-i18n, you'll have to deal with multiple languages in this subbject too. Making it "machine like" will permit us not to translate it ;) So "confirm xxxxxxx" will be better in that sense.
participants (3)
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barry＠digicool.com -
Fil -
Peter Hamilton