Hi, group, I've just joined and been looking for archives to avoid posting
something redundant, but I can't find what I'm looking for.
I'm speaking on behalf of several Majordomo listowners who have recently been
set adrift due to the sudden, tragic death of our 41-year old list and web
host, Paul Rice at vlists. net. Paul served us with unfailing competence and
reliability for years. With Paul's passing, the world is a poorer place.
Paul's family, concerned for his abandoned customers and entirely unfamiliar
with his business, gave access to his operation and his servers to an
acquaintance, another web host with a larger operation than Paul's. She very
kindly offered to assume his customers and provide us uninterrupted service
for our various accounts at the same prices and using the same set-ups. The
cost part was graciously honored as most of us had prepaid for the upcoming
year shortly before Paul passed away. The new organization began transferring
accounts, waived set-up fees, and contacted owners for information about the
services contracted for, etc. But the pledge to continue our Majordomo list
service and our domain-list connections has failed rather miserably. Some of
us, after repointing domain nameservers and providing our current and complete
configs, etc., have sat for a couple of weeks wirh no list service at all, no
access to our webs. We waited patiently because it was worth it to keep our
systems unchanged.
Imagine our surprise to wake up this morning to our new *Mailman lists, loss
of branded list adddresses, non-functional webs, and various other
unacceptable situations. We've been informed that they've changed their mind,
won't run Majordomo because it's too complicated and support-intensive and our
domains can't be properly integrated with lists, etc.
Some of the customers, worried about the already long down time for their
lists and sites, resigned themselves to the Mailman option and it will
probably serve their purposes adequately. Others of us can not make operate
our projects properly. Speaking for myself, as an example, I run an
academically-oriented, fully moderated veterinary list in conjunction with a
same-name web site. I have a longstanding commitment to the doctors and
others in our group to maintain control of a number of functions that I have
managed for years, issues of privacy and, most important, the ability to edit
posts during the moderation process, correct errors and spellings, insert
citations and resource links, etc., before posting the messages through still
carrying the original author's ID headers. Others among us have some other
issues that underlie their need to retain Majordomo lists and lodge them with
a service that will also support their web sites.
The problem is, we can't seem to find any such host that isn't either
restricted to large commercial customers or that runs Majordomo as an
afterthought with no host support available. We have been operating quite
happily with Majordomo 1.94.5+ (some enhancements) and demime, and web pages
requiring Front Page extensions and with a couple of POP mail acacounts for
admin addresses.. We have current complete copies of configs for regular and
digest lists. We are "easy keepers" with Majordomo understanding. So the
question, after that long explanation of our dilemma, is if anyone here can
confidently recommend (or be) a host service that would meet our needs. We
understand that Majordomo is supposedly becoming a dinosaur, but if Majordomo
is a dinosaur, Mailman is a fast-food drive-thru and does not offer the level
of service necessary for specific needs of certain customers.
If anyone can help, point us to a reliable and reasnable provider, or be one,
I would be very relieved to be advised of it and will share the information
with our group. Thanks so much.
Hilary
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