[Mailman-Users] command line administration.

[Rob Lingelbach]

I'm preparing for a time soon when I'll have to administer a large  
active mailman list via a very limited connection (don't ask, but  
thank goodness for PuTTy and internet over cel networks deep in  
Brasil).  I've read the FAQ 3.61 and will examine Skip Montanaro's  
mmfold.py script; in the meantime I'm also re-familiarizing myself  
with all the scripts in {mailman}/bin.    Also am testing the mailman  
GUI with command line browsers w3m, lynx, and links.

I'd be interested in hearing of experiences doing this (am running  
2.1.12).

The archives on one list go back to 1994 (SmartList!)  and are  
extensive.   Education of subscribers as to how to keep quoting to a  
minimum (I contributed a module way back when to SmartList that would  
kick back overquoting), top-posting, etc., have mostly been in vain -  
including kicking back the postings and asking for trimming-  so for  
some years now I have moderation enabled, and a few times a day I  
review the posts and trim them myself.   It's radical but it works.   
Helps as well with the search indexing for the list done every night  
(used to use htdig; now using webglimpse; might switch to swish-e).

In order to edit the postings I have this in mm_cfg.py:

# this is to be able to edit held messages to kill advertising
# remember to insert blurb that msg was edited
# messages will now be held as .txt  (less efficient)
HOLD_MESSAGES_AS_PICKLES = No

..and I run a command that aliases to "vim <path_to_held_messages>/ 
*.txt"

thanks to the maintainers and creators of Mailman.

--  
Rob Lingelbach
rob at colorist.org