Mailman Question

[Alex C]

Hi,

Im very new to mailman and have been trying to work it all out. I have managed to add a few members to my list just for testing and have added an administrator email aswell.

Now the problem i have is that everyone on the list can post to the mailing list i made. I dont want this list to be public and only want it to be private so that a few selected members i add can post to it.

Im sure this cant be difficult to do, but cant for the life of me seem to work it out

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

[247h]

Originally Posted by Alex C

...Now the problem i have is that everyone on the list can post to the mailing list i made. I dont want this list to be public and only want it to be private so that a few selected members i add can post to it.

I'm not sure I understand the context of public and private in your explanation ...

Mailman is a newsgroup-type mailing list in which all the subscribers receive messages posted to the list and, when they post a reply or create a new topic, those are delivered to all other subscribers — therefore in that sense every message is public BUT ...

You control who subscribes; you can disallow registrations and therefore maintain a private membership.

Furthermore, you can control which subscribed email addresses are permitted to post and then disable some from receiving — I use this when I have several email addresses I wish to send from but then only receive all messages in one specific mailbox. If a message is posted to the mailing list address by a non-subscriber (who happens to guess the address, for example), if their sending address isn't recognised it will be held for moderation by an administrator. This can sometimes happen for genuine members who begin sending from a non-registered address — you can add them as a send-only addresses, etc.

Does the above fit in with your aims, or if not, please explain further?

[Alex C]

Originally Posted by 247h

Furthermore, you can control which subscribed email addresses are permitted to post and then disable some from receiving

Hi,

Sorry this is exactly what i want to do. How do i control who is allowed to post. As default it seems all members that are subsribed can post to the mailing list. I dont want all memebrs to have this permission and only allow a select few.

I cant seem to work out how to set this in mailman. Sorry if its an easy question :P

Thanks,
Alex

[247h]

Addresses permitted to post is ALL, as you have discovered, but you can set any address you wish to deny sending from to be moderated (and thus discarded if you choose) — yes it's untidy but it is workable as long as you tell your subscribers their limitations! If they know in advance that only certain subscribers can post then they shouldn't object and, if you choose, you could override this at any time.

It really sounds as though you're trying to use the wrong tool, so let me ask for some more details:

1. How many 'posters' will there be compared to 'others' (ball-park figures)?
2. Of those 'posters', will they be posting announcements or bulletins that intend for no answers from anyone (including themselves)?

If answer to 2 is yes, you're using wrong utility perhaps — you'd be better off using phpList and having multiple administrators who are permitted to create/send messages to subscribers — one-way traffic only.

[Alex C]

Hi,

Yes im begining to think maybe this is the wrong tool. I have a list of 1000+ and growing. I want a good utility to control my mailing list and send emails to them. The list is used for readers of an online magazine and emails are sent out on new issues released and releated information.

I think like you say a PHP mailing list script will be better.

Can i ask do you have any recommendations for a good PHP mailing list manager, maybe open source? I didnt see any included in my cPanel.


edit: sorry just seen that phpList is a free mailing list manager. Thanks again

Thanks for your help,

Alex

[247h]

Yes Alex, phpList will certainly handle those types of bulletins and numbers of subscribers, plus it will give you the ability to create HTML messages of the type that many commercial organisations send (with elements linked to from your webserver, not embedded in the messages). Of course you can send in plain text too, plus you can create re-usable HTML templates for standardised bulletins and then just paste in the bodytext each time.

I hope you find it manageable — I have to re-wrack my brain every time I use it, probably because I don't use it often enough (phpList that is)!

[Alex C]

Thank you so much for your quick replies and helpful infrmation.

I will give it a go this afternoon

Thanks again!

Alex