[Mailman-Users] Alternatives for Yahoo Groups like Web Features

[Adam McGreggor]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2012 at 11:16:22AM -0500, Jason Glazer wrote:
> I am looking for some suggestions on how to provide some Yahoo Group
> like web features for some existing mailing lists. I run a variety
> of mailings lists related to building energy performance on the
> onebuilding.org web site using mailman and hosted by dreamhost. 

I have no idea if you'll be able to do what you want with Dreamhost; I
don't know, and CBA'd looking, at what their provisions are.

I'll assume that you can do what you like, though.

> a) a way for designated members to upload files that others can
> download
> 
> b) a way for designated members to add events to a shared calendar
> that anyone can see
> 
> c) a way to conduct simple polls to gauge interest in topics
> 
> d) a way for members to add links to a page to build up a library of
> good links
> 
> e) a way to create a FAQ page
> 
> f) perhaps a wiki-like way to create and edit pages in a freeform
> basis

For all of those, in one product, a couple of CMSes spring to mind,
particularly those with granular permission sets. I would look at
Drupal and Pyro. Drupal, additionally, has some modules to interact
with Mailman -- although you could use SQL, sync_members, and cron.

One thing to bear in mind with that sort of software is patching, and
keeping things up to date, along with testing your modules will work
across version migrations.

That might be overkill, in which case, if you can ignore/find an
additional service for c), and if your users are comfortable with
Wikis, a wiki may be a reasonable alternative. Some even have
permissions models -- Twiki springs to mind.


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