Thanks Rick! :-)
I (over?-)tweaked the mailman list page - it's got just about nothing on it except bit to unsubscribe or edit options. Could alternatively put it mostly to default, and just strip out the bits about subscribe and post ... but practically, don't know if it makes all that much difference. Folks(/bots) could still subscribe via email.
I did turn off the requiring approval to subscribe to that list; but I'm (at least presently) the only listadmin on that list - so I might just only annoy myself if it's set to also require approval. ... maybe I ought set the "emergency moderation"?, so nothing gets posted without held post being approved? That could be less annoying, as (with appropriate setting) I approve it then does time out such held for moderation items. Could also put relevant text on web page, etc., so it's clear postings to mailman list itself won't be approved.
Also, the "not advertised" - seems to work or mostly work. The only (maybe?) exception I see is if mail is sent to the mailman list with the command list - it does include itself in the list - but if one's emailing it anyway, maybe kind'a pointless for it to not show itself? But if list command is sent to balug-test-request, it no longer lists the mailman list - so that looks good (and ditto for main web link that summarizes all the "public" lists). Also set list archive for mailman list itself to private - probably doesn't particularly matter - but hey, prevent it from being some cracker/spammer's free publicly accessible web storage archive, so that might (slightly) reduce potential abuse.
BALUG-Test now has a relatively complete description on its web page. I did tweak the tag from [balug-test] to [BALUG-Test] - notably to be consistent with everything else including existing lists ... but yes, [Balug-test] was just plain wrong (and what mailman did by default). On the mailman list, it set it to [Mailman] - but I'm leaving that one as the list ought be about zilch usage as an actual "list", and, for anyone that actually uses it more-or-less as such ... principle of least surprise 'n all that, as [Mailman] is mailman's default, and since I/we don't particularly care much what the tag looks like on *that* list - leaving it as the default.
Anyway, pretty darn close to officially "announcing" the BALUG-Test list, as it seems to be working mostly pretty dang well (and better than DreamHost.com!). I think I just need tweak some of the mailman text - at least for now - so folks don't - at least based upon the text sent from this mailman installation - expect that command in Subject: header with blank body will work (heck, they can make it as most simple work-around by including "end" in the body). I think that's "quite close enough" for now, and "good enough" to go forward - with (pending) those adjustments to the text that gets sent.
From: "Rick Moen" rick@linuxmafia.com Subject: Re: [BALUG-Admin] BALUG lists ... mailman list(?!), blank body with command in Subject: header Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2017 22:11:05 -0700
Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu):
mailman list - I don't fully grok why, but ... with the Debian install of mailman, it instructs one to create a list named mailman, which I dutifully did so. I'm guestimating removing such a list may be a *bad idea* - so I've no intention of doing so unless I knew quite certainly there was no specific downside on that (including even any specific ways Debian might happen to use such list). However, seems a bit odd - and potentially problematic(/annoying) to have it shown among the "advertised" lists, so, I changed the setting on that list to: Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine? No That prevents it from showing in: https://temp.balug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo I also changed setting to: What steps are required for subscription? Confirm and approve Thinkin' folks really ought not be subscribed to that list, and adding approval requirement may help prevent unintended subscriptions to that list.
I actually was meaning to talk to you about this matter. You'll notice http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo and http://lists.svlug.org/lists/listinfo
both have mailing list 'Mailman' set as 'Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine?' = no. I don't think there's actually any functionality advantage to requiring listadmin approval, because nobody can actually do anything as a member of that list. The downside of your setting 'Confirm and approve', there, is that _if_ some numbnuts attempts to subscribe, that request will land in the admin queue, and you and I will continue to be pestered about whether to approve it or not. Unlike held _mail_, held subscribe requests never expire out of queue: There is no 'discard held subscribe requests after N days' configuration item.
So, I really do think setting 'Confirm and approve' on mailing list Mailman is an actively bad idea, and think you should revert that.
You're certainly right that any _advertised_ Mailman list will get subscriptions, no matter how nonsensical that idea is for a particular mailing list. Consider, for example http://lists.svlug.org/lists/listinfo/speakers . As it says on the listinfo page, that is an explicitly read-only archive of a _formerly_ active mailing list, so it's flat crazy to try to subscribe to it.