-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Nov 18, 2006, at 7:48 AM, Georg Sauthoff wrote:
> At the page http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/docs.html the authors > invite users to just mail to mailman-users@ ('Email Us' - left side, > like every left side ) and only 'suggest' to subscribe ('We suggest > you > subscribe to the list first' - right side, 2nd paragraph). I agree that this is not the most user friendly arrangement, and that we should have a way for non-subscribers to "get help". That "get help" address should be advertised as the "email us" link. Of course, that address will be a spam magnet, which is why the list admins (justifiably) insist that if that help address is mailman- users, the latter must be subscription protected. One alternative would be to do something like what the Python community does. They have a "help" address that anybody can email, but for which subscriptions are controlled. The volunteer helpers understand they'll get spammed but still they accept this because it benefits novice Python users. Subscriptions are controlled so that the list doesn't become just a general discussion list (competing against python-list) and so that the participants are known Python experts. Would this work for us? The Python community is much larger than the Mailman community, so has a larger pool of volunteers to draw from. A competing concern is that our Mailman experts like Mark, Brad, and everyone else here on mailman-users wouldn't get burned out and just leave mailman-help (or worse, leave mailman-users too!). So I don't know what the right answer is, and I must defer to the folks on this list. If you have suggestions, please discuss! For me, this isn't just limited to a desire to help Mailman users; it seems to me an acknowledgment that Mailman is missing a fundamental communication pattern. - -Barry -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) iQCVAwUBRV8RSHEjvBPtnXfVAQIfGgP/e5eCIKJsFS1D5ZSzMuFlmBBT6smtOjkP Dcm9APkuBDmYQGrqXEtM6rjHO3X4qQTL7OqsVBGzxazrQIb2B9fYjTPnjiNMZaMa n8jisHf9mr9xH1gReGERScoHHS3TxRoz8tD5+8xndbdQ0VwyzoOe7tHA3e1ELrRs 9ksZupxw6Zs= =M1GL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org Security Policy: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.027.htp