[Mailman-Users] Feature Request: Selective Mass Subscription

[Savoy, Jim]

Brad Knowles wrote:

> Mailing lists are useful for a wide variety of things, but 
> VT-type emergencies are not among them.

Well we definitely know that it isn't the *only* solution (there are
speakers and alarms and sirens and lights and cameras everywhere on
campus). But it is just one more thing we can add to the basket of
helpful security goodies.

> IIRC, just a day or two after that event, the CIO of VT came 
> to this very list to ask for assistance in setting up Mailman 
> for future cases like this, to send out emergency notices to 
> everyone on campus. 

I must have missed that discussion.

> My understanding is that he went away very disheartened...

I think his expectations were unreasonably high. E-Mail has its
caveats, just like everything else. We had lots of meetings here
after the VT (and Dawson College (Montreal)) attacks. I think everyone
in security understood that none of their solutions were 100%
guaranteed,
but they also agreed that a saturation warning (by every means possible)
was better than nothing.

 - jim -