[Mailman-Users] 2nd Question: Bypassing Confirmation/Approval for New Subscribers

Mike Ewall catalyst at actionpa.org
Sun Dec 19 02:39:16 CET 2004


I just joined this list.  I'm glad to see such responsiveness (much better 
than the "listowner" list was).

Perhaps someone can answer another point of frustration I have with Mailman.

The software doesn't seem to allow people to subscribe without being 
subject to confirmation or approval.

Is there any way to circumvent the need to require confirmation or approval?

Since the confirmation process isn't very user-friendly, many people fail 
to complete the process to subscribe or unsubscribe.  After analyzing one 
of the lists I run, I found that 18% of those who try to subscribe and 38% 
of those who try to unsubscribe fail to complete the process (some of the 
38% manage to unsubscribe after multiple attempts or by bugging me to 
remove them).

I used to run many Listproc lists where I was able to create 
(user-friendly) web forms to allow people to automatically un/subscribe 
themselves -- no confirmation required.

If there were a command-line way for a mailman listowner to add someone 
without requiring confirmation (this feature is already available through 
the web interface), I could program my forms to re-enable this.

Do command-line options for this exist?

Mike

P.S. Please don't write back with replies about how users who can't 
complete a confirmation process are stupid, lazy or incompetent or why you 
feel that list managers shouldn't have certain features due to security 
concerns.







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