Re: Mailing list question

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005, Beartooth wrote:

> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:44:42 -0400
> From: Beartooth <beartooth@adelphia.net>
> To: abiword-user@abisource.com
> Subject: Re: Mailing list question
>
>
> On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 22:50:17 +0000, Jonesy wrote: [....]
> > Yes, I went through the PITA process to subscribe, and then replied to
> > the first message. I also tried the "set no delivery" request as one of
> > the emails 'explained'. WRONG! I got an error reply from Majordomo
> > saying the request was in error, and it listed all the requests that
> > _could_ be made. *NONE* of the listed commands included a "no
> > delivery", or "NOMAIL", "vacation", or "quiet" ability.
>
> You got it. In fact, it was news to me that Ralph had even found a way to
> tell majordomo to keep a subscription yet send no mail to it; if it's
> really there, it's been added since I looked last. All honor to the
> developers if it has!
>
> > What a convoluted 'process'! Now I am subscribed, but I only want to
> > read and post via slrn - ala usenet. I suppose - to remain 'active'
> > here - I could add a recipe to procmail to kill all incoming list
> > messages. UGLY!
>
> Right. I've given up a lot of interesting lists in my time, essentially
> because they ran on majordomo.
>
> > I don't think I need
> > Yet-One-More-Subscription-To-Something-I-Think-I-Am- Interested-In. I've
> > got a filing cabinet full of folders containing scraps of paper with
> > misc. email addy's, passwords, usernames, URL's, etc. that I can't find
> > anything in now.
> >
> > This all may explain the low volume I see in here.
>
> Yes, your name is legion. Too bad there's no way of telling how many
> people who could give help, not just ask for it, the list loses for that
> reason. Those who know better ways, says the voice of experience, tend to
> have less patience than others with awkwardness.
>
> > I'll just unsubscribe and treat this as a Read-Only ng.
>
> I would, but that the one user I have to support has AbiWord as her main
> app; I have to be able to ask what I can't hack. And she's right: for her
> purposes, something like OO is an exercise in bloat -- AbiWord is the way
> for her to go. Indeed, I'm the one that put her into it.
>
> Otoh, there is a genuine problem here, if you and I are right about
> majordomo, and Ralph hasn't discovered some wonderful new development in
> it. The real mainstays of this list (whoever they are; I admit I don't
> even know if we have one listowner or several) are interested in word
> processor development, not list running.
>

> So they stick to what they know, which happens to be majordomo, alas!

It is worse than that, we are sticking to what we dont know (majordomo)
because it is what the AbiSource people first setup the lists with way
back in '98. "If it aint broke dont fix it" and with the exception of
allowing users to be subscribed without receiving messages everything else
seems to work. You cannot blame the list administrators for preferring to
get on with developing Abiword rather than spending time switching to
different list software.

I'm sure Hub would much prefer to use Mailman (or something other than
Majordomo) for the mailing list. However I do not know if anyone is
interested in doing the work to make the switch happen and make all the
relevant updates. Maybe just maybe if you ask really nicely and file a
request in bugzilla someone might be willing to make the change.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

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Received on Sat Sep 10 20:19:06 2005