[Mailman-Users] Setting up redundant mailing lists in OS XSnowLeopard.

[Mark Sapiro]

JRC Groups wrote:
>
>On 12/30/09 6:47 AM, "Mark Sapiro" <mark at msapiro.net> wrote:
>
>> There are also command-line tools for adding members and syncing
>> membership with a flat file.
>
>When you mention flat file are you referring to a plain text file ? If so,
>what specific format (or encoding) should be used for this file ? How
>exactly should it be formatted ?


Yes, a plain text file with one address per line. Addresses can be
formatted in any standard (RFC 2822 compliant) way. See the FAQ at
<http://wiki.list.org/x/YoA9> for some examples.


>> I'm not sure I understand the question. You can set up two lists with
>> two different names. Use Mailman's Content Filtering to specify what
>> will be accepted and what will be filtered out. If you mean you want
>> posts to be sent to one address and some people to receive attachments
>> and some not, you can use an umbrella list for this (search the FAQ at
>> <http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3> for "umbrella")
>
>The idea is to have a way to control or manage attachments on a per user
>base. I've experienced this is the past with mailings lists I have
>subscribed. Many subscribers are on fast broadband these days and like to
>receive images and other attachments along with their messages. On the other
>hand there are those who are on slow connections and even dial-up. These
>don't like to receive attachments as they slow things down and take a while
>to download specially when the list is a busy one with numerous posts per
>day. My idea was to set-up two separate lists. Posts would be sent to one
>single address and then forwarded to two lists - one with and one without
>attachments. Subscribers would have the option to subscribe to one list or
>the other depending on whether they chose to receive attachments.
>
>According to what you stated above it seems there is a fairly simpler way to
>accomplishing this task. I've looked at the pages describing the "umbrella"
>list concept. It is certainly an option to keep in mind but I would prefer
>another simpler solution as I noticed the notes about possible problems and
>workarounds.


I think an umbrella list is appropriate for your requirement. Most of
the issues with umbrella lists have to do with people who are members
of more than one subordinate list receiving multiple copies of posts,
but you won't have people who are members of both subordinates.


>Is there a way to set-up user preferences so that every user can have its
>subscription set to either receive or block attachments ? This would make
>things a lot easier and allow me to address this issue very easily.


This cannot be done in current Mailman except perhaps by overloading
some existing user option and either implementing a custom handler
(see the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/l4A9>) or modifying the
existing MimeDel (content filtering) handler to process it.


>Can content filtering be set-up to block or allow certain specific types of
>files ? Considering the answer to be yes, would it be possible to set
>content filtering to allow images files but place a restriction on the size
>and/or resolution of the files sent as attachments ?


Content filtering is set per list (the sub-lists in your case). It
passes or filters MIME message parts based on MIME content type, and
also optionally on 'extension' of attached files. Content filtering
per se does not have a way to deal with the size of any attached
message parts or the resolution of any image/* parts, but there is a
maximum message size (for new lists in a default install, this
defaults to 40KB) that applies to all messages on a per list basis
that will result in all messages exceeding that size being held for
moderator approval.

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