Margaret McSeveney wrote:

I represent a small non-profit whose current list host is closing down and we need to have a new List and archives hosting. Alternatives hosted lists offered on the internet are all 150% more expensive than we pay now.

I came across your site and wondered if Mailman might be the best solution as we also have our own hosting account separate from the List hosting.

The

first thing I think of is technical expertise to install and configure the List and also make our archives searchabe on a new server.

Installing Mailman is non-trivial and requires root access for a few key steps. Additionally, it has to be integrated with a mail server and a web server. It is not difficult for someone with experience in installing *nix software and with mail and web servers, but for someone without those skills, it is quite daunting.

Searchable archives are a problem with Mailman. There are patches availabe to integrate search engines with the archives, but they require installation of some 3rd party search engine. Public archives, but not private (list member only) archives can be indexed and searched in Google and other search engines. Some Mailman hosting services have implemented searchable archives.

See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/MoA9>

Our current List is in L-soft Listserv format and the archives can be provided to us as a text file.

If this text file is in *nix mbox format, it can be imported directly into the archives of a Mailman list using Mailman's bin/arch tool.

If it is in some other format, it would first have to be converted.

The FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/Hg> lists some Mailman hosting services.

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