Re: bulk mailer
On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 06:58:36AM -0600, Russell L. Harris wrote:
> Please note that my SOLE interest in Mailman is one-way transmission
> -- implementation of an "announce only" newsletter, rather than a
> traditional mailing list.
My largest Mailman list is an announcement-only list. It's pretty
straightforward to set up.
> Also, there is no need to allow a user to
> subscribe or to cancel his subscription; he can do that by emailing me
> directly.
I also run lists which allow subscription by invitation only,
but (assuming your network topography allows for it) I join the
Mailman developers in strongly suggesting that you reconsider making
unsubsciptions require moderator approval. If someone wants off the
list, they really should be able to get off of it at any time they wish
without having to ask someone else to please do it for them.
> The GNU Mailman Installation Manual tells me that I need to monkey
> around with the Exim4 configuration files. Is that really necessary?
No. By default, you have to copy and paste a few lines into /etc/aliases
for each Mailman list for it to be recognized and work properly. There is
some magic that can be done in the exim config files to make it recognize
new lists automatically without editing /etc/aliases, but I'm pretty
sure that's the only exim config change that you might want/need to make.
> It appears that all of the Mailman documentation assumes that the host has a
> valid publicly-accessible URL. If that is a requirement, then I
> cannot use Mailman.
Well, yes, it is generally assumed (by any mailing list software) that
people are able to access the server running the list. What you describe
yourself as wanting to do should be possible without a public IP address,
just be aware that your subscribers will not have access to many features
of Mailman (web interface, setting their subscription options without
bugging you about it, etc.). On the administrative side, Mailman's
bounce detection will only be partially functional (since it won't have
any way to receive notice of problems after the initial SMTP session),
so you'll sometimes have to identify and deal with defunct or otherwise
dead addresses yourself without Mailman's help.
--
I would rather be exposed to the inconvenience attending too much Liberty
than those attending too small degree of it.
- Thomas Jefferson
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