[Mailman-Users] Software

[Mark Sapiro]

Margaret McSeveney wrote:
>
>I represent a small non-profit whose current list host is closing down and
>we need to have a new List and archives hosting. Alternatives hosted lists
>offered on the internet are all 150% more expensive than we pay now.
>
>I came across your site and wondered if Mailman might be the best solution
>as we also have our own hosting account separate from the List hosting.
 The
>first thing I think of is technical expertise to install and configure the
>List and also make our archives searchabe on a new server.


Installing Mailman is non-trivial and requires root access for a few
key steps. Additionally, it has to be integrated with a mail server
and a web server. It is not difficult for someone with experience in
installing *nix software and with mail and web servers, but for
someone without those skills, it is quite daunting.

Searchable archives are a problem with Mailman. There are patches
availabe to integrate search engines with the archives, but they
require installation of some 3rd party search engine. Public archives,
but not private (list member only) archives can be indexed and
searched in Google and other search engines. Some Mailman hosting
services have implemented searchable archives.

See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/MoA9>


>Our current List is in L-soft Listserv format and the archives can be
>provided to us as a text file.


If this text file is in *nix mbox format, it can be imported directly
into the archives of a Mailman list using Mailman's bin/arch tool.

If it is in some other format, it would first have to be converted.

The FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/Hg> lists some Mailman hosting
services.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan