Greg Skipper, MD writes: > I need to setup a listserv that allows for assigning rights to 2 or > more levels of priviledge (i.e. first level can receive from > everyone, second level can only read second class or thread > responses from first class). Does anyone know of such an option > anywhere? Thanks
As Mark posted, I don't think this is possible within a single list in any list manager, and in fact I don't think it would be a good idea to try to handle it in a single list anyway (if I understand your requirement correctly -- see the last paragraph for an alternative interpretation where it's actually reasonably easy to come quite close with a single Mailman list and any reasonably capable mail programs being used by the privileged members). The obvious way to handle this is to have two lists. One is open only to high-privilege subscribers (enforced by requiring a list admin's OK to subscribe and private archives). The other is open to the general membership (in cases such as "open source" software development like Mailman, anybody can subscribe, but it would also be possible to restriction subscription and archive access to bona fide members in the unprivileged list at the cost of increased administrative burden). If a thread started on the privileged list is of general interest and not sensitive, it can be moved manually to the unprivileged list, simply by editing the address in the header. If earlier posts are needed for context, they can be manually forwarded. Note that the scheme you describe will probably need some such mechanism where the privileged members need to decide explicitly which level of privilege they want to post to. The two-list solution is a well-known method used in many software development communities to handle reports of security vulnerabilities. I'd like to point out that your usage may end up very closely approximating a common pattern with such security lists. Namely, the developers who actually work on security problems are subscribed to both lists, but rarely start threads on the general list. In that case, you will get exactly the usage I undersetand from your description: the privileged users post new threads visible only to the privileged list members, unprivileged users' posts are visible to everyone, and everyone's replies to posts to either list are automatically directed to the right audience. If some of the posts by unprivileged members might be sensitive, they can be allowed to post to the privileged list. The privileged members will need to use reply-to-all to direct replies to both the unprivileged member and the list. (This is how software security lists work -- most such issues are reported by third parties, who often continue to provide information as the thread develops.) Of course directing the original post correctly is a slight burden on the unprivileged members, but on they other hand they're the ones with the privacy concern, and they have high motivation to get this right. Naming the lists appropriately can help a lot; eg, in the software vulnerability case, you have lists named "[email protected]" and "[email protected]", which is pretty easy to figure out. In the case of a medical practice, you could use "discuss@" and "consult@" (and you can probably do better than me, anyway, but that example is a reasonable place to start, I hope). Finally, if I misunderstood your requirements, and you don't need a general discussion list at all, but what you want is for there to be a single point of contact for the privileged members, but only the privileged members and the original poster should see replies, a single list with privileged members as subscribers but posting open to non-subscribers, with replies using reply-to-all, would provide this service. In fact, there may be feature which does not require use of reply-to-all already, but if not it would not be difficult to alter Mailman to do this automatically, as well (that is, include any non-members who are the author or recipient in the Reply-To list). HTH, ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3 Security Policy: http://wiki.list.org/x/QIA9 Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org
