Aktivix:AdminProcedures

Mailing Lists

information on setting up a mailman list

To create a mailing list, go to this page:

https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/create

fill the fields and put the "master" password.

The list-owner then needs to be subscribed to the aktivix-users mailing list:

this is done automatically by the /root/scripts/lists.aktivix.org/addlistadmins.sh script nightly

proposed text to admins

Hi,

your list has now been created. [link to list admin interface] Your password should reach you in a separate, automated email.

We use a program called Mailman for our mailing lists. Mailman is quite intuitive. If you have any difficulty, however, we strongly recommend that you read the available documentation:

http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html

Now that your list has been created, it will be you dealing with the moderation of that list. We might be able to provide assistance with the technical aspects beyond your control, but the day to day administration and moderation of the list should be done by the owner of the list with the help of the documentation available:

http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/docs.html

If you find it difficult to read it on line, a text version is available here which can be printed and/or read off line:

http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/admins.html

If you have further questions or the software does not "behave" as the manual says it should, please provide us with examples of events, with the dates and times in which they happened. There is a list of ways to contact us here:

https://en.wiki.aktivix.org/Aktivix:TechnicalInfrastructure

all the best,

aktivix

information on deleting a mailman list

Here is an example on deleting a list called fnord@lists.aktivix.org

log on to your shell a/c on lists.aktivix.org

ssh -p 23638 someuser@lists.aktivix.org

Then do the following:

cd /srv/lists.aktivix.org/mailman/bin/
sudo ./rmlist fnord

This keeps the archives of the list available

to remove the archives also do

cd /srv/lists.aktivix.org/mailman/bin/
sudo ./rmlist -a fnord

Ignore any messages about aliases

Users

Here is how to set up a user for an @aktivix.org email address

This is for fizzgog@aktivix.org with an existing email address of somebody@olddomain.com

On newyear, enter the following in a shell:

sudo /scripts/users/create.sh -n somebody@olddomain.com fizzgog@aktivix.org

Discussion about having a webform for list creation

18:19 < echo> Alster: can you tell us what https://newlist.indymedia.org/ does?
18:20 <@Alster> echo: https://newlist.indymedia.org/ is nothing else but a formmail interface
18:20 < gdm> we were just wondering whether the newlist.indy form auto completes stuff like admin email, chosen password, etc. or whether ...
18:20 < gdm> ahh, you beat me to it!
18:21 < gdm> so i think it just sends an email request, so not much more automation than we have already
18:21 < echo> pity
18:21 <@Alster> the stuff you enter there is sent to indymedias support ticketing system
18:21 < echo> who then have manually to enter it into the /mailman/create page?
18:21 <@Alster> yes it's very dump
18:21 <@Alster> its sole purpose is to get the needed information
18:22 <@Alster> and even that doesn't work too well always
18:22 <@Alster> we enter it manually either in the webberface or using the mailman scripts
18:23 <@Alster> i'm quite convinced it is possible to pipe this information in to mailman's scripts
18:23 <@Alster> but you'd still want to have a human double check those requests
18:24 < echo> we'd want to do that anyway, and to authorise them
18:25 < echo> at least, I would
18:26 <@Alster> check /var/lib/mailman/bin/ on your mailman installation
18:26 <@Alster> it has all the scripts
18:27 <@Alster> the newlist script sets up new lists (doh!)
18:30 <@Alster> if you look at its help (newlist --help) page, you'll notice it lacks most of the configuration options
18:30 <@Alster> you can set them by writing your own script which parses some user input and stores it into a python script
18:31 <@Alster> this python script needs to have a format of what you get with: config_list -o - mailman
18:33 <@Alster> you can then import the python script (the actual config file for you new list) using config_list -i /path/to/python-script-you-wrote nameofnewmailinglist