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FAQ
I have a perfect happy Mailman installation that handles several mailing
lists. Recently, my boss came to me to ask if I knew of a way to set up a
mailing list under Mailman where the users cannot unsubscribe. Presumably
all membership management would be handled by the list admin via the web
interface.

Any ideas?

--Don

--
Don Becker don at adelphi.edu http://www.donbecker.org
Network System Administrator, Adelphi University http://www.adelphi.edu

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  • Emmanuel Seyman at Nov 20, 2002 at 3:46 pm ⇧

    On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 10:10:40AM -0500, Don Becker wrote:
    I have a perfect happy Mailman installation that handles several mailing
    lists. Recently, my boss came to me to ask if I knew of a way to set up a
    mailing list under Mailman where the users cannot unsubscribe.
    I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question but I would
    really like to know why the fsck someone would want to have a
    mailing list where the users can't *unsubscribe* .

    Emmanuel
  • Mark Goodge at Nov 20, 2002 at 3:54 pm ⇧

    At 16:46 20/11/2002 +0100, Emmanuel Seyman wrote:
    On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 10:10:40AM -0500, Don Becker wrote:

    I have a perfect happy Mailman installation that handles several mailing
    lists. Recently, my boss came to me to ask if I knew of a way to set up a
    mailing list under Mailman where the users cannot unsubscribe.
    The answer to this is "no". You can disable the web interface but, short of
    editing the code, you can't remove the ability of users to unsubscribe by
    email. The documentation suggests that, if this is what you want, the best
    option is to simply set it so that you get automatic notifications of
    anyone unsubscribing.
    I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question but I would
    really like to know why the fsck someone would want to have a
    mailing list where the users can't *unsubscribe* .
    If you wanted to use Mailman (or any other list manager) to handle internal
    "all staff" mails instead of just using a cc list or alias expansion, then
    you want to stop people unsubscribing. You wouldn't, obviously, want to do
    this for external mailing lists.

    Mark
  • Jon Carnes at Nov 20, 2002 at 10:31 pm ⇧
    You can definitely disable the web interface, but what I do is simply
    edit the web page for that particular list and remove that option from
    the web page.

    Also, you can definitely remove the <listname>-request alias so that no
    email requests are handled by the automated services. In this case I
    would point that alias to <listname>-owner and let the owner of the list
    handle the emailed requests by hand.

    If you are more sophisticated you can front-end the <listname>-request
    alias with a procmail script (or a simply a grep) that dumps any
    unsubscribe attempts.

    In that way, you can gain what you desire! Remember that when you go
    Open Source the answer is: You Can Do It!

    Good Luck - Jon Carnes
    On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 10:54, Mark Goodge wrote:
    At 16:46 20/11/2002 +0100, Emmanuel Seyman wrote:
    On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 10:10:40AM -0500, Don Becker wrote:

    I have a perfect happy Mailman installation that handles several mailing
    lists. Recently, my boss came to me to ask if I knew of a way to set up a
    mailing list under Mailman where the users cannot unsubscribe.
    The answer to this is "no". You can disable the web interface but, short of
    editing the code, you can't remove the ability of users to unsubscribe by
    email. The documentation suggests that, if this is what you want, the best
    option is to simply set it so that you get automatic notifications of
    anyone unsubscribing.
    I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question but I would
    really like to know why the fsck someone would want to have a
    mailing list where the users can't *unsubscribe* .
    If you wanted to use Mailman (or any other list manager) to handle internal
    "all staff" mails instead of just using a cc list or alias expansion, then
    you want to stop people unsubscribing. You wouldn't, obviously, want to do
    this for external mailing lists.

    Mark


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  • Barry A. Warsaw at Nov 22, 2002 at 4:06 am ⇧
    "MG" == Mark Goodge <mark at good-stuff.co.uk> writes:
    MG> The answer to this is "no". You can disable the web interface
    MG> but, short of editing the code, you can't remove the ability
    MG> of users to unsubscribe by email. The documentation suggests
    MG> that, if this is what you want, the best option is to simply
    MG> set it so that you get automatic notifications of anyone
    MG> unsubscribing.

    Under MM2.1, it is possible to require the list admin's permission to
    unsubscribe. Public discussion lists should never set this, but there
    are applications (e.g. employee mailing lists) where this setting
    might be appropriate.

    -Barry
  • John Buttery at Nov 20, 2002 at 5:02 pm ⇧

    * Don Becker [2002-11-20 10:10:40 -0500]:
    I have a perfect happy Mailman installation that handles several mailing
    lists. Recently, my boss came to me to ask if I knew of a way to set up a
    mailing list under Mailman where the users cannot unsubscribe. Presumably
    all membership management would be handled by the list admin via the web
    interface.
    The only situations where the inability to unsub would be acceptable,
    as far as I can see, are situations where the list admin has some kind
    of authorization to force the list members to be subscribed. So
    therefore, wouldn't it make sense that the consequences of breaking the
    rule of said authorization be the only restriction you'd need?

    To put it in English, "Unsubscribe from this staff list and you're
    fired." :p

    --
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    John Buttery
    (Web page temporarily unavailable)
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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groupmailman-users @
categoriespython
postedNov 20, '02 at 3:10p
activeNov 22, '02 at 4:06a
posts6
users6
websitelist.org

6 users in discussion

Barry A. Warsaw: 1 post Don Becker: 1 post Mark Goodge: 1 post Emmanuel Seyman: 1 post Jon Carnes: 1 post John Buttery: 1 post

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