Thanks. :-)
And ... passing it to on-list here, as it pro'lly is (slightly) overdue
for at least a trace of mention here (I probably last mentioned it on
this list some year(s) ago or so).
It basically came about from typical general practice of sysadmin /
listadmin, of being "lazy" ... a.k.a. efficient. :-) Basically,
automate (or semi-automate) that which can be (semi-)automated (so one
can move onto the more "interesting" tasks, and let the comptuers do
what they're good at and is boring/tedious for humans).
Not surprisingly, I'd gotten rather tied of the various "unsubscribe
me" requests that were typically sent to me, or sending or Reply-To
address I'd used, or to the list, or to one of the BALUG contact
addresses, etc. Most specifically the bone-headed, naive, ignorant,
lazy, and/or "demanding" emails of that nature. And, I also got rather
tired and annoyed with having to actually think about it, assemble the
information, reply, include relevant links and information, etc.
Really thought handling it ought be a script, or ... quite close to it.
And certainly didn't want to mistrain users to ask listadmins to do
for them what they ought be doing for themselves and should be fully
capable of ... and to reasonably explain the situation, information,
etc. And also cover the "what if" - in case they were actually trying
and somehow failing to unsubscribe - so they'd be pre-armed to
potentially at least come back with useful information, should that
ever happen to occur.
So ... thinking over the script possibility - in different context, I'd
probably do that, but with various BALUG folks, at least potentially
responding, etc, and trying to also share the information where it
might be a bit handier to reference and use - and also thinking of how
I was typically doing it when I replied (often not at mere bare CLI,
but some GUI email client thingy/interface) ... so there'd likely be at
least some trace of copy/paste anyway. So ... decided I'd set up simple
wiki page with boilerplate text that could be copied and pasted, and
would pretty much cover the matter.
I'd also done, I think fair bit earlier, similar to handle responses to
the fairly common "can I post a job to the BALUG list?" type questions -
or rather to highly similar - which also works pretty darn well. And
likewise, any BALUG folk can leverage it - no need to track down a
script - just copy/paste, and it's handled.
For reference also, the one regarding "jobs", is located here:
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:can_i_post_a_job_-_and_bo…
> From: "Rick Moen" <rick(a)linuxmafia.com>
> To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>
> Cc: balug-contact(a)balug.org
> Subject: Re: Our "boiler plate" seems to work pretty well [Re: BALUG
> list(s) unsubscribe (Re: About email subscription)]
> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 11:05:29 -0700
> Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu):
>
>> Well, our "boiler plate":
>> https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:unsubscribe
>> seems to work fairly well.
>>
>> *Sometimes* (though rarely) folks even say "thanks" - though once I
>> email 'em the boiler plate, I typically never hear from 'em again.
>> I don't think I've yet had anyone I've sent the boiler plate to that
>> ever came back with a response indicating that they weren't able
>> to unsubscribe after they were sent the boiler plate
>> information / instructions.
> That's a remarkable achievemnet, seriously. Well done.
DO NOT REPLY ALL (unless you're subscribed to BOTH lists)
FYI, I noticed short bit ago (they were up and online
earlier today), that offline are:
SF-LUG:
([www.]sf-lug.{org,com,info}), etc.
but lists remain up and on-line
also
BALUG
on-line: [www.]balug.org & lists,
all other balug bits (e.g. wiki, archive other than list archive, etc.)
still presently off-line.
I expect to have more information (and hopefully have whatever is the issue
corrected) by later this evening or so.
(POTS line appears operational, but not reaching the subnet via
DSL - I'll know more when I'm on-site again).
Rick,
If you could please, and would be willing,
could you cover DNS slave services for BALUG,
notably these zones:
e.9.1.0.5.0.f.1.0.7.4.0.1.0.0.2.ip6.arpa
balug.org
master(s) (all for each of the above):
198.144.194.238
2001:470:1f04:19e::2
Do note, however, that at present time,
balug.org is NOT (yet) Internet delegated to those IPs - I don't expect
that to happen until we extricate ourselves from DreamHost.com - however
in the meantime it is maintained quite highly alike to the balug.org.
DNS data on DreamHost.com - I check periodically, and only differences
I'm aware of are SOA MNAME, RNAME, and often the REFRESH (I don't know
where they get their REFRESH number from - it seems to vary some fair
bit, with no particular discernible pattern) and I tend to keep the
serial # one ahead of DreamHost.com (at least most of the time when I
check/notice it). If you'd prefer, for balug.org, could also
just set up as "warm standby" - verify (to-be) slaves can do
AXFR pull, and put most of the configuration in place, but just
don't actually activate it until DNS is fully and properly Internet
delegated (or we're free from DreamHost.com and about to so delegate).
I'm presuming you could do/offer this on both ns1.linuxmafia.com. and
also ns1.svlug.org.? That would be great, if you're able to.
I'm also presuming the various IP information and out-of-band
communication information is still the same as when we set up
slaves for sf-lug.org (plus any relevant updates received since then).
Just let me know, thanks (can also email just me directly for any bits
that ought not get publicly archived, etc.).
FYI, thought I'd pass this along so more folks interested in BALUG's
administration/administrivia would be made more generally aware of what's
happening with this. (we do also have an "unadvertised" (mostly try and
keep it off public exposure to hopefully reduce spam) off-list alias
for the "systems administrators" of BALUG ... but that alias only goes
to myself and Jim Stockford - so makes for quite limited audience ...
it's intended for those systems administrators having root/superuser
administrative access to BALUG stuff (or at least much or most of
the relevant bits thereof), and also for stuff that may be
"sensitive" and ought not be publicly exposed/archived).
And some other updates too ...
Also, as of yesterday A.M. PST, I now also have "reverse" DNS for
IPv6 that will also be used by BALUG (actually, BALUG is already
making some use of IPv6, but for mail and lists, where IPv6 is in use
we'll certainly also want to have proper "reverse" DNS also in place).
----- Forwarded message from Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu -----
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 08:12:12 -0800
From: "Michael Paoli" <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: balug.orgDreamhost.com account from suspended to
unsuspended - site coming back
To: "Michael Hubbard" <michael.hubbard(a)gmail.com>
Cc: "Jim Stockford" <jim(a)well.com>, "Rick Moen" <rick(a)linuxmafia.com>
[BCC: acohen36(a)linuxwaves.com]
That'll pro'lly mostly be me.
I did get reverse DNS set up with my ISP quite recently,
hoping to get mail and anti-spam and list software installed and
configured - or at least initial configuration bits - fairly soon.
I may also need to do bit about space (it's mostly a VM that
runs atop a laptop - so only so much SSD to spare for it ...
but I can probably squeeze out a wee bit more for it).
May take a bit to get everything moved over and tested. Do also have
some old DB stuff I want to be sure we've sucked out of DreamHost.
Michael Hubbard - what's your timeframe look like? Would 2 months, or
possibly as little as a month be sufficient? Or do you need it
faster/sooner than that? ... of course realizing faster may be
better - if feasible, so you don't have BALUG "chaining" you to
DreamHost longer than reasonably needed to smoothly move off
of DreamHost (or as smoothly as DreamHost allows to be feasible).
Let me/us know - and thanks for covering the DreamHost bit all
these years.
> From: "Michael Hubbard" <michael.hubbard(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: balug.orgDreamhost.com account from suspended to
> unsuspended - site coming back
> Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 01:40:09 +0000
> Sounds good. We should talk about someone moving the site from my
> Dreamhost account to another host. I need to migrate my other sites from
> Dreamhost soon anyway.
>
> Who's going to sign up for this?
>
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2016, 12:09 AM Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Michael Hubbard,
>>
>> Thanks for getting that taken care of - I also now have the information
>> from
>> DreamHost that the account has gone from suspended to unsuspended, and
>> things
>> are coming back on-line. Should be all good within a few hours or so
>> (DNS TTLs 'n all that).
>>
>>
>>> From: "Michael Hubbard" <michael.hubbard(a)gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: balug.org dropped from Dreamhost.com? - What happened?
>>> What's status?
>>> Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 05:26:33 +0000
>>
>>> It's taken care of, I had to update an expired credit card and I missed
>> the
>>> notice while I was traveling.
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 14, 2016, 11:14 PM Michael Paoli <
>> Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Michael Hubbard,
>>>>
>>>> What happened with balug.org & DreamHost?
>>>> Some billing glitch, or did you drop balug.org from there and not tell
>> us
>>>> at all?
>>>>
>>>> Please let us know - ASAP.
>>>>
>>>> And thanks too for what you have done and covered for BALUG.
>>>>
>>>> > From: "Michael Paoli" <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>
>>>> > Subject: Re: Did balug.{org,com} discontinue or get temporarily down??
>>>> > Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 20:58:41 -0800
>>>>
>>>> > Thanks for noticing and mentioning - just stumbled across that myself
>> a
>>>> bit
>>>> > earlier.
>>>> > Looks like the hosting is missing/gone (and we weren't
>>>> > notified -but not the first time that's happened) - checking into it,
>>>> > but may have to
>>>> > update DNS to point it elsewehre (& promote the staging etc. site to
>> full
>>>> > main primary production).
>>>> >
>>>> > And there is no balug.com (never was - or at least not of ours that
>> I'm
>>>> > aware of).
>>>> >
>>>> >> From: GoOSSBears <acohen36(a)linuxwaves.com>
>>>> >> Subject: Did balug.{org,com} discontinue or get temporarily down??
>>>> >> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 19:33:37 -0800
>>>> >
>>>> >> As an FYI,
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Getting message while trying to access www.balug.org :
>>>> >> ~~~ quoting ~~~
>>>> >> Server not found
>>>> >>
>>>> >> <My browser> can't find the server at www.balug.org.
>>>> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----- End forwarded message -----
DO NOT REPLY ALL (unless you're subscribed to BOTH lists)
FYI, I noticed earlier this morning (they were up and online yet
earlier this morning), that offline are:
SF-LUG:
([www.]sf-lug.{org,com,info}), etc.
but lists remain up and on-line
also
BALUG
on-line: [www.]balug.org & lists,
all other balug bits (e.g. wiki, archive other than list archive, etc.)
still presently off-line.
I expect to have more information (and hopefully have whatever is the issue
corrected) by later this evening.