On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 7:45 PM, Shane Curcuru <[email protected]> wrote: > Are there any plans to preserve archives of any existing @oo.o mailing > lists? I didn't see a treatment of archives on the planning page: > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/Mailing+lists > > Obviously any mailing lists hosted at Apache will use the normal > mail-archive.a.o system, but I was wondering if there's any plan or need for > somehow preserving the past archives of lists. >
As mentioned before, 333 legacy OOo lists are already archived, back to 2000, by Markmail. But this does raise another question, as to how we move/migrate these lists (or whatever subset we want to preserve) to Apache. In other words, what can be done to preserve the continuity of the current list subscribers? I see a few approaches, with trade-offs on effort/benefit. 1) We could set up equivalent lists at Apache, on the existing list infrastructure. We send notifications to the legacy lists that the existing list will be shut down and invite them to subscribe to the new list address. In some cases multiple legacy lists might be combined into a single Apache list. Pro: very easy to do Con: requires some manual steps from existing subscribers, to sign up for the new list, adjust inbox filters, etc. 2) We could do a variation on #1, but where we sign up existing list subscribers automatically. Pro: Transparent from subscribers view. Not too hard for us. Con: Is this permitted, given data protection laws, legacy website terms of use, etc. In other words, can we legally do this? 3) Variation on #2 where we send a notification email directly to each list subscriber and allow them to opt-in to transferring their subscription Pro: Little effort (but not zero effort) required for list subscribers, respects data privacy Con: A bit of work for us 4) We do a variation on #2 or #3 but then (waving my arms here) use some admin kung fu with DNS records to make the mailing list look like it is still an openoffice.org email address. Pro: This could make the move entirely transparent from the user's perspective. Con: More work for us. Not sure if it is possible 5) Variation on #4 where instead of messing with DNS, we just have the Apache mailing list manager deal with openoffice.org addresses natively Pro: As with #4, this could make the move entirely transparent from the user's perspective Con: Can this be done list by list Or is it an all-or-nothing thing? 6) Install the legacy OOo mailing list manager, SYMPA, at Apache and bring over the subscribers (and list archives?) directly. Pro: Transparent to users Con: More admin work for us, and not just a one-time migration, but ongoing maintenance by Apache of two email list infrastructures. Any other options? -Rob
