So, I made some tweaks to the Mailman list itself, notably including: o I actually subscribed myself to it. 8-O - thus far it hadn't received any emails yet anyway (possibly excepting stuff that didn't make it through the spam filters) o I set it so non-member posts are by default approved o I set it so subscriptions require approval (but not confirmation) o set default on password reminders to disabled (if it wasn't already so) o archives: disabled and private o set the timeout on items held in queue to 5 days o disabled ability to subscribe in digested form o emptied out the footer added on the end of non-digest emails sent
I have also checked that it now works.
Since I earlier set it to "advertised" No: "Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine?" No I think the only place it shows up is the Overview of all temp.balug.org mailing lists web page ... but nevertheless it is included there (and Mailman has to have a list for that general functionality - and by default and convention that list name is Mailman), so, it ought work reasonably for the intended purpose.
From: "Rick Moen" rick@linuxmafia.com Subject: Re: [BALUG-Admin] BALUG lists ... mailman list(?!), blank body with command in Subject: header Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2017 10:44:33 -0700
Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu):
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.
It actually doesn't make any difference, especially if you make it unadvertised.
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?
To make sure we're clear on what's being discussed, here, an unadvertised list is one not displayed on the sitewide listinfo page. E.g., linuxmafia.com's sitewise listinfo page is:
http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo
That page lists eight mailing lists but not these two:
http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/Mailman (and one other that is non-public)
I just e-mailed a test query of the command 'lists' to mailman-request@linuxmafia.com: It sent back a roster of the public mailing lists plus mailing list Mailman (which it included even though I set its unadvertised flag). The non-public other list was omitted.
It's possible that this behaviour was changed in a later Mailman release.
For better or worse, hardly anyone uses the e-mail command interface; it's quite obscure compared to the Web one.
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.
Looks good.