I am a huge Mailman fan, listowner, non-techie ... I just checked out the member web interface for the 2.1 version and archive back a couple months for this list.
Comment: Get MIME verse plain text ... none of my list users will know what MIME means. If the default for lists plain text for users, then I would reverse the question and explain what a MIME digest is, perhaps list a few e-mail programs/versions+ that support it and few big ones that don't. Questions: 1. Passwords - will it be there be one universal password for all lists a person has on a server (particularly for the autogenerated passwords)? 2. Daily list post limits - Can we technically limit the number of posts per person per day. With a two post limit, an attempt to post a third time would either moderate or bounce the post based on the list settings. 2. Archives - Are there plans for enhanced integrated archives in 2.1? If not, is there a sub-group working on this topic? I'd like to connect with anyone who has implement an elegant solution here (and figured out how to munge e-mail addresses to prevent e-mail harvesting) that allows a wrap around of a sites general look and navigation. Further, what about a "Subjects" digest option that would only e-mail out the subject lines with links to the archived posts the line below? 3. Syndication - Minnesota E-Democracy <http://e-democracy.org> is slowly moving our remaining lists off Yahoogroups. We'd like to connect "what is happening now" on our mailing lists to our home page using RSS or something similar to place automatically updated subject line links to specific archived posts. I am aware of what http://mail-archive.com does. 3. List searching/monitoring - How about e-mail list archive searches via the web and the ability to be notified via e-mail when lists you are directly subscribe to use your keywords. Imagine 300 e-mail lists across Minnesota - the value of our very public local community discussions and statewide topical information exchange e-lists would be greatly enhanced if people had a non-list member "lurking" option. 4. Enhanced directory information/statistics - I am interested in the automatic generation of statistics that would help a user determine if a list is worth joining (i.e. is it alive, member numbers, message volume) as well as the creation of additional fields <http://www.publicus.net/opengroups/meta.html> that list managers of "public" lists can opt into to using. The big idea is that groups sites using Mailman could gather and distribute their directory information (not unlike listserv or the list directories at Yahoogroups) making it easier to find e-lists of interest. (Obviously major anti-e-mail harvesting controls would have to put in place or these concepts could make it too easy to overwhelm list owners with non-member e-mail posting attempts.) 5. Member directory - You might write this off as a web forum thing, but E-Democracy could really use an option that would assign every list member on our server a public page where they could opt-in to tell other members about themselves. Something like http:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >From here we could also hang links to their posts across the different list public archives (has anyone seen a good MYSQL e-list archive system) as well as consider options for E-Bay like ratings from other participants on substance and style (we host political/community discussions and we need tools that enhance member- to-member self-governance and accountability). I know this is a lot and much of this might be Mailman 5.0. My honest sense is that Mailman, once it has a user-oriented web interface for list members, simple, yet powerful web archives, and a DMoz-like directory scheme for public lists, could become an open source wildfire that saves low cost/free e-mail group communication on the Net as Yahoogroups folds due to the lack profitability. My whole deal is to promote tools that allow people to organize and communicate in groups, particularly in local communities around the world. The truth is that the most important freedom on the Internet is the freedom of electronic association NOT speech. Speech is only effective or powerful when you have an audience. E-mail lists are the most powerful tool for group communication and freedom on the Internet and I see the increasingly enhanced progess of Mailman as one of the key democratization on the Internet and honestly, in the "real" world. Keep up the good work. On the side, if you don't think I am full of b.s. and are interested in connecting with other "civic-interested" techies that I have met around the world (I speak on e-democracy globally), please drop me a note: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steven Clift [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.publicus.net _______________________________________________ Mailman-Developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.python.org/mailman-21/listinfo/mailman-developers
