[Mailman-Developers] Re: [Mailman-Users] [ANNOUNCE] Mailman 1.0b9

[Harald Meland]

[Per Starback]

> Wish list:
> 
>  * Add Mail-Followup-To header.  (I've done that for myself, but
>    I would appreciate not having to do it again, as well as I'd like
>    to see more use of this useful although nonstandard header.)

As this (currently) is a non-standard header, I wouldn't feel good
about putting explicit support for it into Mailman.  However, a more
general "Add this header (standard or not) (if it doesn't exist
already) to all messages to this list" might be good.  But not for
1.0, methinks.

>  * Possibility for individual list members to say if they want
>    a Subject line [tag] or not.  That would mean that there would have
>    to be two versions of each message, but I think that would be worth
>    it as the [tag]/no tag preference is more about the preferences
>    (and mail situation) of individual list members that about the
>    preferences of the list itself or its maintainer.  I would never
>    add a tag like that on my lists per default, but if users who want
>    it could get it explicitly that would be nice.

For users it is always good to make _all_ the bells and whistles
configurable.  However, Mailman has to find a balance between user
configurability and how efficient list delivery should be.

This means we have to make sure that making something user
configurable won't make list delivery unbearably inefficient for any
Mailman installation.  Once we start going down the road of deciding
which options should be made user configurable and which aren't really
worth it, it is *very* easy to get lost.

There are lots of other good candidates for user configurable options
concerning outgoing list messages: Adding a Reply-To: header,
including the list footer, including the list header, and of course
VERP.

The added complexity of Mailman code this would need is also an issue.

So, what I'm trying to say, is: Yes, this would be nice to have for
some installations -- but don't hold your breath :)

>  * A line at the Membership Management page where you set default
>    attributes for new users in the same way that you can change
>    attributes for the existing users.  This more general feature
>    would be instead of the
> 
> 	Which delivery mode is the default for new users?
>   and
> 	When receiving digests, which format is default?
> 
>   questions on the Digest-member options page.

Yes, this would be nice.  I'll try looking into it.

>   I think I would like to set "hide" by default,

If you're talking of changing the Mailman default setting, that would
be an incompatible change -- and those suck.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions on how can be Mailman improved --
and do keep 'em coming!
-- 
Harald