[Mailman-Users] configuring Mailman

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "JH" == Jim Hodson <jimhodson at jenniferonsunday.com> writes:

    JH> We want a very simple mailing list system, and Mailman can do
    JH> a lot more than we need.  I'm trying to find out how to best
    JH> configure Mailman for our needs.  Here is what we want to do:
    JH> 1. Send e-mail news updates to our list.  We do not want users
    JH> to be able to send to the list.

Some other suggestions:

- Turn on the moderation flag for all your users.  For existing users,
  go to the membership management page, and use the Additional Member
  Tasks to turn on the mod flag for all users.

  Then go to Privacy Options -> Sender filters and set the
  default_member_moderation flag to Yes.

- Set the member_moderation_action to Reject and add a nice rejection
  notice text to the following text box.  Say something like "this is
  an announcement list, to reach the band, please email jos at dom.ain"

- Set the generic_nonmember_action to Reject.

- Go to the General options and scroll down to Reply-To munging.
  Turn on first_strip_reply_to and set reply_goes_to_list to Explicit
  Address.  Set reply_to_address to jos at dom.ain.  This way anyone
  following up to an announcement will send the message to your band
  contact address.

- Scroll down on the General options and set include_list_post_header
  to No, but leave include_rfc2369_headers to Yes.

- For those of you allowed to post to the list, turn off their
  moderation flag so their postings go straight through.
  Alternatively, you can add an Approved header to your postings.

- I'd also recommend turning on personalization under the NonDigest
  section, and disabling digests under the Digest section, but these
  are optional.

That's everything I can think of for a general announcement-only
list.  Mailman can handle these kinds of lists quite well, although as
you can see, it's not completely obvious everything you need to set.
That's something I'd really like to improve for future releases
(probably through something like List Styles).

-Barry