Hi Brad -
Sorry for sitting on this for so long - would like to respond to it though.. see below.
And this, plus the CAN prefix to the patch name, reminds me: correct me
if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that Mailman as it exists does
not comply with the new (unfortunately named) CAN SPAM act. According
to this act, a recipient of an email from a given site has to be able
to opt out from receiving ANY MAIL from that site. Right now all mailman
lists are treated completely separately, and nobody (not even the
subscriber) can easily find out which lists subscribers are subscribed to.
Actually, you can easily see which lists you're subscribed to. Go to the listinfo page for the mailing list in question, and log in using your e-mail address and password. There's a button that says "List my other subscriptions". Unfortunately, you can't unsubscribe from all of them with a single command, you will have to unsubscribe from each of them individually. But you can globally change all your passwords for all the lists you're subscribed to, change your e-mail address, and if you scroll down to the bottom of the list, you can change a number of other options, most of which can be applied globally.
However, this is only a on a per-address basis. If you have multiple different addresses subscribed to different lists, you will have to handle them each individually.
I know all this - and I know you know it, and I know all Mailman geeks like us get it. The problem is with regular, every day people who are expecting (and really can be expected to expect) Yahoogroups type interfaces. I'm sorry to say it, but Mailman's web interfaces are extremely daunting and confusing. It's really weird to have to log in multiple times to access multiple list settings, especially if it's the same password being used everywhere. It's likewise weird to then be able to make "global" changes from one list's preferences page. Has anybody considered having a usability expert look at the Mailman interfaces and redesign them so they make more sense from a user's point of view? How easy is it to customize these pages? Are they perchance templatable?
And we're only talking about the frontend (listinfo interface) here now, not even the backend (admin interface) for list owners. The backend is so incredibly complex and overwhelming that it has become a serious stumbling block for us in offering a service that people will actually use. For Kabissa these interfaces have to be as easy to use as Yahoo Groups or Google (has anyone tried Google's groups? They are quite nifty actually). We have people coming online from all over Africa who pay dearly for every precious minute they spend online.
What I envision having in my Mailman/Mambo system is a single user database with one password per username for all services. Users can then go to a simple preferences page on Mambo and do basic things like change their email address or password, tick a box to opt in/out of various mailings, and in particular opt to receive no mail at all.
You can pretty much do all of that today. Go to the listinfo page and log in with your e-mail address and password.
Perhaps, but you can't do it "easily".
Cheers,
Tobias
-- Tobias Eigen Executive Director
Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa http://www.kabissa.org
* Kabissa's vision is for a socially, economically, politically, and environmentally vibrant Africa, supported by a strong network of effective civil society organizations. *
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