> I think everyone is missing the point here. I would MUCH prefer to
> be able to browse a searchable archive site than to have thousands
> of messages dumped in my own mailbox.
First off, Majordomo has an "archive" feature, and many mailing lists
(like my own) are producing web-browsable archives based on those
archives.
The problem with findmail that a lot of people see on here (myself
included) is that mailing lists are often want or desire privacy of their
traffic, at least only to those who are actively participating in the
discussion. A handful of mailing lists I host have this requirement...
they don't want a bunch of non-active participants.
In addition, there are copyright issues involved, as well. I won't beat
these issues up here, but I can see somebody in the future suing (and
winning) FINDMAIL over unauthorised storage of copyrighted data (E-Mail
messages are inherently copyrighted to the sender)...
> However Findmail doesn't
> do a very good job of it and most lists these days won't accept messages
> unless the sender is a subscriber.
This is intentional. First off, we have the issue involving spam.
Spammers will commonly send commercial-content messages from one-shot
accounts to mailing lists. By requiring a person to be a subscriber, and
using Majordomo's E-Mail verification feature, a listowner can ensure that
all E-mail addresses on the list are (at least) not spammers.
Secondarily, there are other reasons why some lists may not accept
messages from non-subscribers, that may be related to the FINDMAIL issue.
I run a number of lists on my servers where the attitude of both the
administrative persons and the body of the list are not compatible with
lurkers. Their reasons for this are many. However, this is part of the
reason why FINDMAIL is an issue, and why they do not accept messages
unless the sender is a subscriber.
<rant>
If I may rant a little here, I think you are missing the point of mailing
lists. Mailing lists are not meant (IMHO) to be a part-for-part
replacement of UseNet. As a matter of fact, one of the best parts of many
mailing lists is the intimate feeling of a small, highly targetted
discussion group, inhabited by people who care about a particular topic.
It sounds like you want Majordomo to replace CNEWS. Unless I'm missing my
mark, this was not only outside the design specifications of the 'domo,
but also of the entire concept of a mailing list.
In this regard, FINDMAIL's services are not only redundant (because many
lists have their _own_ archives, thank you very much), but even
undesirable.
</rant>
> We need to solve these problems
> so the list owner can do it right himself using the normal list
> management software. Then there won't be any reason for someone
> else to do it badly.
The tools are here. Check out packages like lwgate (see the
Majordomo-FAQ).
And we don't need to solve these 'problems'. They've already been solved,
it's called UseNet.
-Faedl.
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