Questions on Mailman list administration.
Hi, everyone.
I am the admin for 5 Mailman lists residing on the same server and part of the same domain. There are tasks I have been performing with great frequency lately and have started to question if there is a simpler way to perform them.
These are the questions:
I often subscribe members to the 5 lists myself. As it is now I have to subscribe the same member to each one of the 5 lists individually. In case I wish to subscribe members to all 5 lists hosted is there a way to do it all at the same time ?
Is there a way to look at the lists hosted collectively ? For instance, in case I wish to read (on screen) or print a list with all subscribers in one or all lists is there a way to do it with all lists being displayed together on the same page or document ?
Is there a way to print a list of subscribers along with their e-mail addresses ?
In the Mass Subscriptions page I enter the subscriber's e-mail address to add him or her to one list. However, I am then forced to go to the Membership List page and enter the subscribers name. Is there a way to do both at the same time ? Can the e-mail address and name be entered on the same page to simplify this process ?
Is there a way to print user statistics ? For instance, can I print a list with information on users such as the number of messages they have posted in a given time period, their country of origin, date when they were subscribed to the lists, e-mail address, and others ?
Thank you in advance.
Joe.
Hi Joe!
All these questions can be answered with "Yes!" if you have commandline access to the server and the lists thereon, then (propably) a "ssh server" and "list_members <my_list>" and friends will be your friends ;)
I think it works to enter lines like "Joe" <joemailgroups@gmail.com> on the mass subscription page.
Will probably not be that easy but with shell access it might be worth thinking more about it.
Greetings,
Martin
Hi, Martin.
Thank you for your help and reply.
Unfortunately I am not well trained and skilled on the use of Unix (or in my case Apple's version of it). Any admin I do must be done using the browser interface available in Mailman.
Will all the answers to my questions be dependent on command line use ?
One more question I forgot to ask on my original post:
Is there a way to configure Mailman so that when users select 'reply' the message goes to the list and when they select 'reply all' the message goes to both the list and the poster wrote the message they are replying to ?
Thank you.
Joe.
On December 14, 2013, at 1:48 AM, Martin Schulte <mmlists@ds-gmbh.de> wrote:
On 12/14/13, 5:23 AM, Joe wrote:
Under general options, you can set the option
Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is /strongly/ recommended for most mailing lists:
To list.
Be aware that if any of your subscribers use the reply to header to indicate where they want replies sent to, you will break this for them. (The are links to fuller discussion on this at the option).
-- Richard Damon
Richard Damon writes:
No, there isn't. A "smart" MUA has a "reply to list" function that replies to list if the List-Post header is present, and otherwise to the poster. Such a setting is then undesirable, because users of such MUAs almost never want the reply-to-poster function (but can use it if appropriate), and the reply-to-all function does the Right Thing.
On the other hand, the header that Mailman (ab)uses to control this behavior is the Reply-To header, but it is interpreted by the recipient's MUA. Standard-conforming MUAs simply substitute the Reply-To address for the poster address, because the *definition* of the Reply-To header is "where the *author* wants replies sent, if not to the From address."
There is no standard way for a mailing list to say where *it* wants replies to go, and no "best current practice" to arbitrate between list and poster when their wishes conflict.
It also prevents *any* standard-conforming mailer from addressing replies to the poster, period. (Of course you can cut-and-paste, and the mailer will *send* to the poster. But that's way inconvenient.)
In theory Mailman could have a setting to include the poster's address in Reply-To, but that's not what Reply-To mungers usually want (it ends up PO-ing their subscribers who get tons of duplicates), and it's not what Mailman does AFAIK.
On 12/14/2013 01:13 AM, Joe wrote:
Hi, everyone.
I am the admin for 5 Mailman lists residing on the same server and part of the same domain. There are tasks I have been performing with great frequency lately and have started to question if there is a simpler way to perform them.
and later added:
Any admin I do must be done using the browser interface available in Mailman.
You could create a script on your work station to issue 'wget' commands to do the subscribes. See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/uIA9> and the post at <https://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2004-December/041214.html>.
The script could be something like
#!/bin/sh
for list in listname1 listname2 listname3 listname4 listname5; do
wget -O - http://[domain.name]/mailman/admin/$list/members/add\
?subscribees="$1"
&adminpw=[admin_password]
&send_welcome_msg_to_this_batch=0
&send_notifications_to_list_owner=0
done
If this were saved in a file named say sub5 and given execute permission, you could then in a terminal window do
/path/to/sub5 "John Doe <jdoe@example.com>"
to subscribe that user to the 5 lists. See the above linked post for more info on the wget command parameters.
You could script the answer to 3. below.
Visit the roster at <http://host.name/mailman/roster/list_name directly or via the Visit Subscriber List button on the list's listinfo page.
See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/YoA9>.
No.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Hi, Mark and other members.
On December 14, 2013, at 12:47 PM, Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> wrote:
Thank you Mark but this seems more complicated than subscribing them one list at a time.
The link above is broken. My browser shows a blank page with a message stating the address can't be found or does not exist.
In regards to printing the list of subscribers, can they be listed in chronological order with date (and perhaps time also) when they were subscribed ?
On 12/19/2013 12:30 AM, Joe wrote:
It's more complicated to set up, but once you set up and save the script, it's only a single command to subscribe one person to all 5 lists.
Did you substitute your host name and list name for host.name and list_name.
Also, in any case, you can go to the roster from the list's listinfo page.
But I realized later that this roster only shows addresses, not names.
See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/aYA9> for other methods.
In regards to printing the list of subscribers, can they be listed in chronological order with date (and perhaps time also) when they were subscribed ?
No. Mailman does not keep that information.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Hi Joe!
All these questions can be answered with "Yes!" if you have commandline access to the server and the lists thereon, then (propably) a "ssh server" and "list_members <my_list>" and friends will be your friends ;)
I think it works to enter lines like "Joe" <joemailgroups@gmail.com> on the mass subscription page.
Will probably not be that easy but with shell access it might be worth thinking more about it.
Greetings,
Martin
Hi, Martin.
Thank you for your help and reply.
Unfortunately I am not well trained and skilled on the use of Unix (or in my case Apple's version of it). Any admin I do must be done using the browser interface available in Mailman.
Will all the answers to my questions be dependent on command line use ?
One more question I forgot to ask on my original post:
Is there a way to configure Mailman so that when users select 'reply' the message goes to the list and when they select 'reply all' the message goes to both the list and the poster wrote the message they are replying to ?
Thank you.
Joe.
On December 14, 2013, at 1:48 AM, Martin Schulte <mmlists@ds-gmbh.de> wrote:
On 12/14/13, 5:23 AM, Joe wrote:
Under general options, you can set the option
Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is /strongly/ recommended for most mailing lists:
To list.
Be aware that if any of your subscribers use the reply to header to indicate where they want replies sent to, you will break this for them. (The are links to fuller discussion on this at the option).
-- Richard Damon
Richard Damon writes:
No, there isn't. A "smart" MUA has a "reply to list" function that replies to list if the List-Post header is present, and otherwise to the poster. Such a setting is then undesirable, because users of such MUAs almost never want the reply-to-poster function (but can use it if appropriate), and the reply-to-all function does the Right Thing.
On the other hand, the header that Mailman (ab)uses to control this behavior is the Reply-To header, but it is interpreted by the recipient's MUA. Standard-conforming MUAs simply substitute the Reply-To address for the poster address, because the *definition* of the Reply-To header is "where the *author* wants replies sent, if not to the From address."
There is no standard way for a mailing list to say where *it* wants replies to go, and no "best current practice" to arbitrate between list and poster when their wishes conflict.
It also prevents *any* standard-conforming mailer from addressing replies to the poster, period. (Of course you can cut-and-paste, and the mailer will *send* to the poster. But that's way inconvenient.)
In theory Mailman could have a setting to include the poster's address in Reply-To, but that's not what Reply-To mungers usually want (it ends up PO-ing their subscribers who get tons of duplicates), and it's not what Mailman does AFAIK.
On 12/14/2013 01:13 AM, Joe wrote:
Hi, everyone.
I am the admin for 5 Mailman lists residing on the same server and part of the same domain. There are tasks I have been performing with great frequency lately and have started to question if there is a simpler way to perform them.
and later added:
Any admin I do must be done using the browser interface available in Mailman.
You could create a script on your work station to issue 'wget' commands to do the subscribes. See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/uIA9> and the post at <https://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2004-December/041214.html>.
The script could be something like
#!/bin/sh
for list in listname1 listname2 listname3 listname4 listname5; do
wget -O - http://[domain.name]/mailman/admin/$list/members/add\
?subscribees="$1"
&adminpw=[admin_password]
&send_welcome_msg_to_this_batch=0
&send_notifications_to_list_owner=0
done
If this were saved in a file named say sub5 and given execute permission, you could then in a terminal window do
/path/to/sub5 "John Doe <jdoe@example.com>"
to subscribe that user to the 5 lists. See the above linked post for more info on the wget command parameters.
You could script the answer to 3. below.
Visit the roster at <http://host.name/mailman/roster/list_name directly or via the Visit Subscriber List button on the list's listinfo page.
See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/YoA9>.
No.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Hi, Mark and other members.
On December 14, 2013, at 12:47 PM, Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> wrote:
Thank you Mark but this seems more complicated than subscribing them one list at a time.
The link above is broken. My browser shows a blank page with a message stating the address can't be found or does not exist.
In regards to printing the list of subscribers, can they be listed in chronological order with date (and perhaps time also) when they were subscribed ?
On 12/19/2013 12:30 AM, Joe wrote:
It's more complicated to set up, but once you set up and save the script, it's only a single command to subscribe one person to all 5 lists.
Did you substitute your host name and list name for host.name and list_name.
Also, in any case, you can go to the roster from the list's listinfo page.
But I realized later that this roster only shows addresses, not names.
See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/aYA9> for other methods.
In regards to printing the list of subscribers, can they be listed in chronological order with date (and perhaps time also) when they were subscribed ?
No. Mailman does not keep that information.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
participants (5)
-
Joe -
Mark Sapiro -
Martin Schulte -
Richard Damon -
Stephen J. Turnbull