Support For Mailman?

[tmccartney66]

I'm a former customer thinking about returning to run a small site. I've read elsewhere on the forums that TCH may be ditching Mailman, and I'll need at least a handful of small discussion lists (20 members or less). Is that true? If TCH still supports mailman, how many lists are included in the lowest-priced plan?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Tracey

[TCH-Bruce]

Yes, TCH is moving away from supporting mailman. Some of the servers don't have it installed. The ones that do will have it removed over time.

 

There are alternative solutions to mailman. There is phpList included in Fantastico and you can find a host of others that will run at hotscripts.com.

[logullo]

Ouch! Mailman support is one of the reasons I chose TCH.

 

So, having looked at phpList, it seems that it's for "one way" broadcasting of newsletters... not for creation of email discussion lists. I appreciate the pointer to hotscripts.com, and I'll dig there, but if anyone has advice on functional replacements for mailman that I can install on TCH I'm all ears.

[TCH-Bruce]

Welcome to the forums loqullo

 

You may wish to open a ticket with the help desk. Some of the older servers are still running mailman and they may be able to move your account to one of them. As I stated above, I don't know for how much longer mailman will remain on the older servers. And I don't know if they will move your account but you could ask.

[TCH-Don]

Welcome to the forums loqullo

[TCH-Thomas]

Welcome to the forum, loqullo.

 

I am not sure, but I think DADA Mail (http://mojo.skazat.com/) is a "two way" mailing/discussion list".

[logullo]

Hi! Thanks for the welcome--it's really great to be here! I just flew in from... oh, wait. Wrong venue.

 

This Mailman issue is a real problem for me. I contacted support to find the mail metrics, and I followed up with a question to them to be sure I understood the impact of the mail rate rules on Mailman's operation. The answer I got was not what I was looking for. Perhaps I misunderstood, or stated my question improperly. Let me ask again, here, and see what you think.

 

I have an acccount that currently uses Mailman. Mailman has a mail list with x members (where x is the number of club members using the mail list). TCH has mail rules for sending rate that limit the number of emails to a rate of y emails per z time quantum. Although we're not using actual numbers here, let's say for argument that x=3y.

 

If I then attempt to send email to the [X] list, Mailman will begin sending x emails. After a third of the emails are delivered, the server's throttle rules are met (we've sent y emails in less than z time). Now... the big question. What happens next?

 

Case A: the remaining 2/3 x emails are held in queue until the remaining z time passes; then the next 1/3 x emails are sent; another z quantum passes; the remaining 1/3 x emails are delivered.

 

Case B: the remaining 2/3 x emails are sent to /dev/null

 

I can live with A. B is unacceptable, especially if this is a silent failure. After my exchange with support, I believe I was told that Case B was what happens.

 

As I ponder the suggestions about replacements for Mailman, I have to step back and consider the bigger picture. If the above is true (mail gets dropped), and this happens at the server level, then I assume that other mail list programs (like those suggested above as replacements) will also fall under the throttle rules.

 

It's a shame we are getting chased off the Internet by the spammers. I understand and am sympathetic to the plight of ISPs who have to implement these types of throttling metrics. Please help me understand completely the rules here at TCH so I can make a sound decision.

[TCH-Bruce]

The rules are in place to prevent someone from signing up sending out a ton of spam and getting the server blacklisted. Since the server is a shared server not only does this take down the spammer but it also takes down eveyone else on that shared server.

 

You have a couple of options.

 

1) You can find software that will allow you to send your mailing list that can conform to the restraints in place.

 

2) You can get a dedicated server where you control the limits

 

3) You can sign up at a mailing list host if you cannot work within these limits.

 

I feel for legitimate mailing list customers but with the amout of spam being distributed around the world some rules have to be applied to keep web sites up and running.

 

Good luck