To Abilash Raj
Thank you for tour very clear comments.
I appreciate them.....
That's right. Mailman is a mailing list manager and is primarily based around discussions using Emails. You can subscribe to mailing lists and send email to the list address, which then gets distributed to all the members. All the emails sent to the mailing lists are also archived usually in an archiver.
The official archiver, a.k.a the one supported by us, also additionally supports posting to the mailing list via the Web interface. If anyone wants to use the web ui to post, they need to have an account and need to verify that they own the email address they are signing up with.
Then, anything they post is sent as an email, on their behalf, to the mailing list and that's how you can get 2 ways to post.
You don't need any account on the web interface if all you want is to post through email.
Great.The absence of a manual means a lot of guessing, which means I have to make a lot if test posts, but you have saved me a lit oftine. Thank you.
It is slightly confusing, but let's separate sign-up into two terms and let me know if that is still confusing, "sign up to web interface", "subscribe to mailing list".
sign up to web interface: This is optional. This allows you, as an administrator to operate the mailing list and it's configuration. A user can sign up to the web interface and manage all the subscriptions they have, and also subscribe to mailing lists.
subscribe to mailing list: This is a user participating in a Mailing List. For this, they don't necessarily need to sign up via web interface as there are other ways to subscribe to a mailing list, like anonymous subscribe (which is your #2 above). Once they are subscribed, they are called "subscribers".
Users will always have to "subscribe" before they can participate on a mailing list.
There is currently no way to mandate "sign up on the web interface" for all "subscribers".
Thanks. This should definitely be in the manual and instructions to users.
So then, when I add my current subscribers from Dadamail, they will be anonymous unless they choose to sign up for the web interface?
If the archives are set to be private, only the "subscribers" can view the archives.
I think I have changed my thinking. Allowing everyone to view the archives will drive more people to my website and allow them to decide whether to sign up for the list and possibly subscribe to the interface.
Last, in my account settings what is the difference between a member and a non member?
"non-members" are people Mailman remembers who interacted with a MailingList in past. For example, I can ask an list owner to let my post through, without actually subscribing(because I don't want to get all the emails, just send a single email) by allowing me to be a "non-member" who is allowed to post.
Ok, got it. Now a person I import from my old dada mail list—-They are sign up for the list but do not yet have a sub to the web interface. That makes them anonymous I think, right? If so, once I add them I will not see them as members, right?
If so, doesn’t that mean they will not be exportable should I one day decide to move again? If so, I should keep that list.
Thanks a lot.
Paul