[Mailman-Users] Questions about how moderating works

[Gail]

Hi Folks

Please forgive me if these questions are already answered someplace in the
on line documentation, I swear I've looked, but can't find info on these
issues, and they're rather important to me.  A point toward the right place
on the site, or hopefully a quick answer would be greatly appreciated.

I moderate a hobby email list for about 6000 people from a remote location
away from the server and sponsor of the list.  I am not very technical and
my vocabulary may be a bit off too, but hopefully I'll not take up a lot of
time with silly questions.  Just think of my mistakes as comic relief! <G>
we're looking for alternative software to use for running this list and
after a rather difficult conversion in the past, I'm hoping to better
anticipate and deal with differences we'll find this time.

The way we've run the list requires that all messages must be read and
approved by me, and at times I also need to 'add' comments to the end of a
message.  It appears that all approvals are done on the web, rather than
through email, is that correct?

Is it hard to use an on line web approval system?  To add comments, or to
reformat the original message in particular?  I've used one in the past that
was nearly impossible to use and had to abandon it as it more than tripled
the time required to do the job!

Is it necessary that messages be approved in the same order they were
received in?  

Can digest be manually created via some sort of command or are all digests
created automatically based on size or a time of day set up on the system?

Is it possible to ban or strip all attachments completely?

I realize many of these issues raised are things people should be trained to
do before sending in a message, but its impossible to train some folks who
can barely turn on a computer to trim previous messages, make a subject line
relevant, and wrap words properly - just a few of the issues I deal with
every day.  At the same time, some questions require a simple answer which I
currently add to the end of their messages.  If I don't do that 'add' I'll
instead get 20 people answering it, so its far preferable that I answer them
at once.  I do realize messages can be 'deferred' but it would seem simpler
to jump around and approve messages in a different order without having to
defer things.  All this may be moot if there's an option for doing the
processing through email as I have always done in the past.

Another 'nice to have' option would be if digests are formatted with a list
of inclusions at the beginning, including the subject, sender's name, and
perhaps a number for each message?  I've subbed here with another address to
get digest versions, but none have arrived so perhaps Verizon's acting up
again and I should check that out.

Thank you for any info you can give me, having gone through one change that
was less than pleasant, I'm hoping to anticipate any possible issues up
front this time.

Take care
Gail