Mailing Lists

T

Telfie

Verified User
Joined
Jun 17, 2003
Messages
14
It may just be me, but I find the mailing list system very unfriendly. I have finally figured out how to approve emails when the system is moderated. However, now that I have that issue resolved, I find that when the forum is moderated, it will not allow the posting of attachments.

Now there may well be a settings that I need to flick, but for the life of me I can't figure it out.

So, the reason for my post ... a better mail list system that has complete instructions based on the user interface that is provided with DA.

Alternatively, a useful set of instructions based around the forms that are used by DA to set the mail lists up and explanations of the fields and what they do ie ...

what is Munge domain
what is precedence
what is taboo headers, body
what is message fronter

The instructions at majordomo do not seem to tell you this information.
 
Hello,

I agree that Majordomo is a bit cryptic. I myself am not fully aquainted with all the configuration options there (partly because as you mentioned, even the official documentation is sparse)

John
 
Perhaps I can be a bit of help in this discussion; I've been using Majordomo for somewhere around ten years.

Two old O'Reilly books that covered Majordomo and alternatives well are "Managing Internet Information Services" and "Managing Mailing Lists". (Of course these are old books; they were written about the same time as the O'Reilly book on high speed access, the one titled "Getting Connected: The Internet at 56k and Up" :D .)

The reason you can't readily handle attachments with moderated lists is more to do with your MUA software than Majordomo or the underlying Exim. For example, KMail has a resend command that maintains all the structure of the resent email, so it might work.

I haven't tried it because I don't believe in sending attachments through mailing lists.

There are several reasons, the most important two being (in no particular order):

* Attachments don't work for people who want to subscribe the digest version of your list.

* Sending Attachments to a list wastes an awful lot of bandwidth, an awful lot of destination storage space, and an awful lot of time for people who use low-speed connectivity as well, as everyone gets copy of the attachment whether they need it or not. A better use of bandwidth would be to publish a link in the post so everyone who needs the attachment can just click and get it.

If you're using a mailing list specifically to distribute attachments, then majordomo probably isn't the way to go (actually, both netiquette and virus protection would indicate neither mailing lists nor email in general aren't the way to go) though they certainly are convenient.

Have you subscribed to the majordomo-users mailing list:

http://www.greatcircle.com/lists/

Though I haven't tried it, you might be able to install mailman on your DA powered system.

But I don't think you'll find much support for sending attachments; most Internet professionals recommend using some other method for sending files than as attachments to mailing lists.

Jeff
 
DirectAdmin Support said:
I agree that Majordomo is a bit cryptic. I myself am not fully aquainted with all the configuration options there (partly because as you mentioned, even the official documentation is sparse)
Click to expand...

John, I'd be happy to help you with anything majordomo-related. I've been a contributor to majordomo-users for many years, and I can help you with adding digests, archives, and additional web-based control.

Jeff
 
Jeff,
Would you have some time to give us instructions on how we can install MajorCool alongside DA?
I have tried, but am unsuccessful.

Thanks, Eddie
 
You've got me, Eddie.

I've never installed MajorCool anywhere.

But yes, I will, if you can wait a few days.

I'll try the install on my testbed DA system, and after I have it figured out I'll post what worked for me.

My main testbed system is RHL 7.3/DA.

What are you running DA on?

Please write me via email; I have a great "tickler" system for email, but nothing at all to keep track of when to look at various posts.

And I don't want this to end up forgotten.

Thanks.

Jeff
 
It would be great if it were possible to bulk subscribe members of a mailing list. Adding them one at a time gets old real fast.
 
You can.

Your list is in a file named:

/etc/virtual/example.com/majordomo/lists/listname

where "example.com" is the name of the domain and listname is the name of the mailing list.

it's a straight ascii file, and you can add or subtract email addresses manually.

You don't have to restart anything; the list will just work properly the next time anyone sends an email to it.

Note that you must remember this is an ascii list and if you edit it on your local machine you must upload it again using ascii, and also make sure the permissions don't change.

Note also that majordomo doesn't send any introductory emails to anyone you add manually; you'd have to do that yourself.

Jeff
 
Should have mentioned that I'm a reseller & can't change files in the /etc directory.
 
Then you've got two options...

First is to get your hosting company to add them for you.

The other would be to send an email to majordomo with multiple subscribe requests:

For example, send an email to [email protected]

The subject can say anything; it doesn't matter.

The body lines should be:

subscribe [email protected]
subscribe [email protected]

and so forth.

This should work. This way majordomo will send out the original emails it sends to all new subscribers, and if the lists are set to double-opt-in, it will also send them the subscription inquiry.

Jeff

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
T...send an email to majordomo with multiple subscribe requests
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks, I didn't know you could do that. You just have to send one email, right? (Not one per subscriber.)
 
as Jeff stated, one email with multiple lines:

Code: 
subscribe [email][email protected][/email]
subscribe [email][email protected][/email]

It reads commands 1 line at a time.... and you should be able to run as many commands as you wish though 1 email (although not certain with that)

Chris
 
jlasman said:
The other would be to send an email to majordomo with multiple subscribe requests:

For example, send an email to [email protected]

The subject can say anything; it doesn't matter.

The body lines should be:

subscribe [email protected]
subscribe [email protected]

and so forth.

This should work. This way majordomo will send out the original emails it sends to all new subscribers, and if the lists are set to double-opt-in, it will also send them the subscription inquiry.

Jeff

Jeff
Click to expand...

I tried this and got 72 emails to approve the subscriptions since they came from the administrator email and not the email addresses that subscribed. Any way to shut that part off?

Also, is there any way to change the email address of the list owner? I could not easily find a way to do that.

Thanks

Steve
 
Hello,

I think you should be able to set "Moderated" to "no" in the list setup. Also, you could change list owner by changing the following files:

/etc/virtual/domain.com/majordomo/list.aliases
/etc/virtual/domain.com/majordomo/private.aliases

John
 
DirectAdmin Support said:
Hello,

I think you should be able to set "Moderated" to "no" in the list setup. Also, you could change list owner by changing the following files:

/etc/virtual/domain.com/majordomo/list.aliases
/etc/virtual/domain.com/majordomo/private.aliases

John
Click to expand...

Unfortuantely, as a reseller, I don't have access to /etc. I only have access to my domains. :(

Also, the list is set as unmoderated, but when you have email address "a" (the list owner) subscribe email addresses "b-zz", via email command, the list owner gets a single email for each email address that was subscribed in order for the owner to approve each subscription.

Thanks

Steve
 
Majordomo is not the most advanced list software out there.

Perhaps you should notify your hosting company and ask them to add the addresses for you.

We do that for our customers using Majordomo; perhaps your provider will as well.

Jeff
 
sbchasin said:
Also, is there any way to change the email address of the list owner? I could not easily find a way to do that.
Click to expand...
What is the email address of the list owner? I don't see where/how that's set initially.
 
D9R said:
Is there any problem with defining addresses with this format:

[email protected] (firstname lastname)

Or, is it better to not include the first and last name:

[email protected]
Click to expand...
Majordomo itself doesn't care, but the method you use to add email addresses may.

These are all valid address forms for Majordomo:

John Smith <[email protected]>
[email protected]
[email protected] (John Smith)
"John Smith" <[email protected]>

but the last example in the list is NOT acceptable to the DirectAdmin screen for adding addresses.

Full documentation for majordomo can be found at:

http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/

Jeff
 
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