links - maillists

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links - maillists

A mail list is a way to send mail to many people at once, without having to know all the email addresses. There are two basic kinds of mail list:

Announce-only list: One (or a few) main people send mail to all the people on the list.
Discussion list ("listserv"): Each member of the list can send email to everyone else on the list.

A good mail list program saves archives of the mail sent, allows people to subscribe and unsubscribe, allows restriction of who can send to the list, and other useful things.

Usually one or two people are the administrators of the list. They add and remove members, keep an eye on the postings for spam, set the options for how people subscribe, what appears in footer of each email sent, etc.

Mailman is is the best mail list program i know of, so i haven't even bothered to find links for any others! It is made for Discussion lists, plus you can make a list announce-only if you want. Mailman is available with any good web hosting.

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mailman - discussion

"Reply-To" Munging Considered Harmful http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html "An Earnest Plea to Mailing List Administrators" – "Some administrators claim that Reply-To munging makes it easier for users to respond to the entire list, and helps encourage list traffic. These benefits are fallacious. Moreover, Reply-To can have harmful -- even dangerous -- effects. If you think Reply-To munging is a good idea, I hope I can change your mind." Chip Rosenthal : 2002

Reply-To Munging Considered Useful http://www.metasystema.net/essays/reply-to.mhtml "An Earnest Plea to Mailing List Administrators" – "Some administrators claim that Reply-To munging can have harmful -- even dangerous -- effects. I assert the opposite, that not adding a Reply-To header has even more harmful effects. If you think Reply-To munging is a bad idea, I hope I can change your mind." Simon Hill : 2000

mailman - docs

FAQ - at GNU.org http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/faq.html Frequently Asked Questions about the Mailman maillist manager GNU : 2010

FAQ - at List.org http://wiki.list.org/display/DOC/Frequently+Asked+Questions This is the most complete FAQ and How-to. Searchable Python.org : 2010

GNU Mailman - Installation Manual http://www.list.org/mailman-install/ Usually mailman is available with your hosting. But if you should want or need to install it, here is how. Barry Warsaw : 2007

GNU Mailman - List Member Manual http://www.list.org/mailman-member/ Very nice and clear step-by-step manual for mailman, in the form of questions and answers. Terri Oda : January 2010

GNU Mailman Wiki http://wiki.list.org/ The most up-to-date docs, as it's easier to edit the wiki. "Central place for communication between the Mailman community and the Mailman developers." Community, Development, Documentation, and Security. GNU : 2010

How-to: About Mailman, at the UW http://www.washington.edu/computing/mailman/ Some easy-to-follow pages for using Mailman. Just ignore the parts that are about Washington.edu itself. Washington.edu : 2009

Mailman Users List http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/ The mail list of the mail list mailman : 2006-05-01

The Mailman mail list http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ The mail list about the Mailman maillist manager GNU : 2009

mailman - how-to

How-to: Common Mailman administrative tasks http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24846?viewlocale=en_US All command-line. How to: * Reset Mailman to defaults; * Back up Mailman data; * Restore from a Mailman backup; * Migrating from one server to another Apple.com : August 2007

How-to: How can i remove a post from the list archive / remove an entire archive? http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=all#3.3 Command-line. "You need to edit the raw archive 'mbox' directly, and then regenerate the archive." Python.org : 2006

How-to: How do i back up my list? http://wiki.list.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=4030694 "Easiest: Make cPanel backup - your mailman list archives and settings will be in there.
Command-line. You should of course have regular, reliable, and tested site backup procedures for all your data, not just your Mailman lists. However, there are advantages to backups of your list configurations in other and possibly more flexible and frequent manners. " Terri Oda - List.org : October 2009

How-to: How to back up list archives? http://none Easiest: Log in to the Mailman admin for the list, go to the list archive, and download the monthly gz file. James Walker : 2010

How-to: How to back up membership list? http://none Easiest: Send an email to YourListName-request at your.domain.name with the text "who [your list password]" in the subject or body, then you will get back a list of subscribers, sorted by Digest and Non-Digest users James Walker : 2010

Trouble-shooting Mailman http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.014.htp Useful infos for Mailman problems. Python.org : 2009

Troubleshooting: No mail going out to lists members http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.014.htp "Here are some common things to check when no mail is going out from your lists." Python.org : 2006

More maillists info on this site

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