Is there a way to suspend or otherwise prevent a subscriber from posting to a list and send a notice of same, without actually unsubscribing and officially banning them? Suppose I have a user that is abusing a list rule. I don't want to ban them yet but I want them to be forced to contact the list owner in order to be reinstated. I know I can add them to the ban list, but what happens to their subscription settings? Are they also automatically unsubscribed or do they just get a banned message when they post while the subscription information remains in tact? TIA.
On Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:37:06 -0400 Dennis Putnam <dap1@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Hello Dennis,
Is there a way to suspend or otherwise prevent a subscriber from posting
Put them on 'moderation', which means all their posts have to be approved before they go out to the list. I know that means work, but you could just ignore them or simply discard them.
to a list and send a notice of same, without actually unsubscribing and
IDK whether mailman notifies the user that they're on moderation, but you only need send that message to them once. At the same time, you can ask them to explain their actions, and what they're going to do about getting back in to good standing.
Personally, if they've been persistently breaking the rules, I'd ban 'em anyway. It's not likely they're going to change, despite your previous warnings.
-- Regards _ / ) "The blindingly obvious is / _)rad never immediately apparent" I hit the ground, boy have I arrived! The History Of The World (Part 1) - The Damned
Dennis Putnam writes:
Is there a way to suspend or otherwise prevent a subscriber from posting to a list and send a notice of same, without actually unsubscribing and officially banning them?
In the Membership page, set the member to moderated.
In the Privacy | Sender Filters page, set the member_moderation_action to "Reject" (*not* "Discard").
Edit the member_moderation_notice to taste. You cannot make the notice itself member-specific (although it can be personalized with the usual %(variable) substitutions I suppose), so make sure it is generic enough to cover all the cases that you envision. The contact for reinstatement requests should probably not be a personal address. The LIST-owner address is a good candidate.
This is totally automatic, and the ball stays in their court. Alternatively (suggested elsewhere, repeated here for completeness),
2'. Set member_moderation_action to "Hold".
3'. N/A (I don't know any way to change the standard hold notice).
In this case, you will (1) need to review the post in the moderation page, and (2) directly contact the member regarding the possibility of disabling moderation for them (see 3', above).
Personally, I favor the totally automatic method for a truly abusive member, as it sends a stronger message. I also use "Hold"-style moderation, but this is more for a situation where several members each feel the need to have the last word on some topic (typically an off-topic :-). If I'm in doubt about whether the member is truly abusive or just unclear about the rules, I use Hold and engage them off-list. I only give one warning, though.
In the rare case that I need to do both, that sucks, but I just use Hold and then manually reject the abuser, cutting and pasting the automatic reject message.
Obviously this is pretty staff-intensive; I wouldn't want to do it if I were supervising a lot of lists with random memberships. Most of my lists are quite cohesive, though, so any of the above is pretty unusual.
I know I can add them to the ban list, but what happens to their subscription settings? Are they also automatically unsubscribed or do they just get a banned message when they post while the subscription information remains in tact? TIA.
AFAIK, "ban" means "ban". They are unsubscribed and prevented from resubscribing. This is a last resort.
If the list is open-subscription, banning is not very effective for hardened miscreants; they just get a throwaway address at hotmail and start in again.
HTH, Steve
Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
AFAIK, "ban" means "ban". They are unsubscribed and prevented from resubscribing. This is a last resort.
The ban_list has no effect whatsoever on current list members unless and until they request an address change or unsubscribe and attempt to resubscribe. It has no effect on posting.
The ban_list only affects invitations, subscriptions and changes of address. That's why it's under Privacy options... -> Subscription rules.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
participants (4)
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Brad Rogers -
Dennis Putnam -
Mark Sapiro -
Stephen J. Turnbull