I'd be glad to help with the mailing list and Web site. I've been with
BALUG since the beginning, and am an experienced Mailman listadmin and
Linux sysadmin.
(One thing I'm bad at, so please don't ask: Lining up speakers.)
I've taken out an account on the wiki, and joined this list and the new
incarnation of balug-talk on the "lists.balug.org" host. I'm reading
docs on Postnuke.
Some concerns:
1. balug-talk's archive has always been publicly accessible. Suddenly,
the new one isn't. Problems: (1) It's not what the membership
has always wanted and expected, and (more primarily because) (2) a big
part of the point of answering questions publicly is to advance the
state of collective knowledge, e.g., by people finding the questions &
answers via Web search.
My 2 cents: This change really shoots BALUG in the foot. Please un-do
it ASAP.
2. Host "lists.balug.org" doesn't accept mail to the postmaster account
as required by RFC2821 and numerous other SMTP standards.
(Specifically, it 550-rejects such mail with a "user unknown" message.)
This ensures that mail from BALUG will be (needlessly and avoidably)
discarded or rejected as probable spam, _and_ denies members of the
public to use of a required administrative contact in case there's
something wrong.
(If this is something "dreamhost" screws up globally and is not under
Michael's control, please just say so.)
3. http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-talk-balug.org/2005-March/
has some mis-parsed entries in it, that appear to be fragments of prior
years' mails to balug-talk. This is almost certainly fixable, but will
require command-line access (to edit the mbox file) and ability to
regenerate the Pipermail archive.
To see what I'm talking about, look at the 15 entries marked "No
subject".
4 As always, CABAL appreciates the calendar link from the BALUG front
page to CABAL events. However, there's no "Sat, March 26 2005" CABAL
event. Because of the desire to help out SVLUG and to avoid Easter
weekend, CABAL's second meeting of the month was this _past_ Saturday,
the 19th.
5. Attempting to bring up the BALUG calendar
(http://www.balug.org/index.php?module=PostCalendar&func=view&tplview=&viewt…)
shows this at the top of the page:
Warning: Smarty error: problem creating directory "modules/PostCalendar/pntemplates/cache/dad8523a2e18f1929871d45a6df8aac5/%%164/%%1643473877" in /home/.bluebellblender/miamlh1/balug.org/modules/PostCalendar/pnincludes/Smarty/Smarty.class.php on line 589
6. BALUG's "next meeting" information's out of date. I'd fix it if I
had access! ;->
Yes, I'm very much inclined to agree. I'd think the "announce" list
should be moderated, so that typically about one to a few messages per
month come out on that list (e.g. information about upcoming meetings
and other key BALUG events or particularly important items of note).
I think generally, folks expect the "announce" list to be quite low
volume (zero to a few e-mails per month), and highly specific and relvant
to BALUG itself.
Now that we've got an admin list together :-) and hopefully folks
working on it too, perhaps the "announce" list can appropriately be
set as "moderated", and relevant policy set and made reasonably
clear (if it isn't already).
Also, regarding "job postings" in general, not sure what BALUG
policy is (I don't think there's a "jobs" list, but there is a "talk"
list), but I know other user groups have a policy which is roughly:
it's okay if and only if you have an "inside" track on the position,
i.e. you work there or have worked there, or have some other quite
direct familiarity with the environment. Anything less (e.g.
recruiter/agency, or more general postings), tends to be frowned upon.
Also considered "okay" (again, "inside track" type rule) is personal
(preferably brief, with link to or "available on request" for more
details, resume, etc.) posting on one's availability or upcoming
availability. Not saying that such is or ought to precisely be
BALUGs general policy on job posting and such, but something like that seems
to work rather well for other user groups. "Rules" could also be looser
for a separate "jobs" list, ... but then that may not be as useful,
as those then tend to be "just another jobs list" with not much that's
highly specific/relevant to the user group.
It's also quite appropriate for folks to show up at meeting and mention
openings they have or have "inside track" knowledge of, ... and also for
folks to mention their present or upcoming availability.
Hmmm, I also didn't see LINUX anywhere in that original posting!
references/excerpts:
> Is this really an acceptable use of the balug-announce list?
> Shouldn't it be limited to balug-talk or is there a balug-jobs?
> Roberts, La Rohnda writes:
> >Duration: Direct Hire
> >Location: Richmond, CA
http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-March/0000…
Hello Larry and Dick,
As we spoke of before, I am available to help with maintenance of email
addresses on BALUG. Let me know.
Jerry McGovern
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