[Mailman-Developers] add_members and nomail

[Scot Hacker]

Back in 2005, while working at an OS X Server-based organization, I wrote a bash + python script pair that extracted students/staff/faculty from a database to populate mailman lists, where many members were subscribed to various lists in nomail mode, using add_member's "-e" flag. The system worked very well.

Later, we dropped OS X Server and moved to Linux, and I was surprised to find that my script no longer worked. Only then did I realize that "-e" for "nomail" was an Apple customization that never found its way into the standard Mailman distribution. I solved the problem by copying the Apple-provided add_members to my Linux systems and changing the python shebang at the top. 

These days, I find myself still doing the same thing on the cPanel-based systems I run, which means my systems break each time cPanel updates Mailman, and that I now run a very old version of add_members. Every organization I've worked for has had this need to batch-add people in nomail mode, which makes it really surprising to me that the standard distribution still doesn't support the option (I can't possibly be the only admin with this need!)

Long story short, if I were to submit a patch, would it likely be accepted? Or is there a good reason why it's not included? 

Thanks,
Scot