[Mailman-Users] Is Mailman right for us?

[Anthony R. Thompson]

On 7/21/2010 5:12 AM, Alison Epstein wrote:
> We're considering using Mailman for our organization's listservs. But 
> I'm having trouble finding a demo to try or some screen snapshots so 
> that I can even determine if this is the right software for us.
> 
> I need something for our discussion lists. (We also have announce-only 
> lists.)
> 
> The discussion lists ideally would have an archive that is accessible.
> 
> Also, some of our lists need to have the ability to have multiple 
> "moderators / posters" who may or may not be list subscribers. For 
> instance, we have staff in Jerusalem & Chicago. We have mailing lists 
> for each office, but all staff members can post to either list. For 
> example: A Jerusalem staff member can send a message that only the 
> Chicago staff will receive.

Alison, I can say that Mailman can do what you describe (I'm sure others
can too :)

I just converted 71 lists (a few announcement lists and the rest
discussion) from Listserv to Mailman and so far everything went smoothly.

(If you're doing a similar conversion you can see some documentation I
wrote on this at http://blog.anthonyrthompson.com/listserv-to-mailman/)

Our biggest announcement list has about 1500 people on it and a few of
our bigger discussion lists have between 500 and 1000 people on them.

Yes Mailman comes with archives built in.  If you want to enable
searching you'll have to do that as an add on but there's documentation
out there on doing that (a lot of people, my org included, use swish).

I don't know if I can set up a demo for you, or if there are screen
shots, but if no one else knows of anything I might be able to do some
screenshots for you if you contact me offlist about what you'd want to see.

~Anthony