Mailing list software and services

We are using Topica for an internal list. However, recently they are including some offensive adverts. Can anyone recommend software that we can maintain on a local server. We use this for internal memos, notices etc.

Given that OS X is based on Unix, that OS X Panther Server runs 'mailman' <http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/>, that might be worth checking out. It's pretty decent, scales up nicely and doesn't suck up lots of CPU time either. Free.

Macjordomo: <ftp://macjordomo.med.cornell.edu/pub/MacjordomoAlpha/>

You can get other commercially available software such as Communigate Pro: <http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/>

I'm sure there are others, but that's what first comes to mind,

Dieder

Check out Macjordomo. Simple and free. You don't even need to run it directly on your mail server.

<http://macjordomo.med.cornell.edu/Macjordomo/Download.html>

Robert Brenstein

martin weiss wrote:

We are using Topica for an internal list. However, recently they are including some offensive adverts. Can anyone recommend software that we can maintain on a local server. We use this for internal memos, notices etc.

I've never actually used either of the following, but the lists I'm on seem to use either ezmlm <http://cr.yp.to/ezmlm.html> or GNU mailman <http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/>. ezmlm may need qmail <http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html> as the SMTP server, while Mailman will probably run with the SMTP server that comes with Mac OS X, Postfix.

-- Paul Schinder schinderpobox.com

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 06:51:09 -0800, martin weiss <mweissnyscience.org> wrote:

We are using Topica for an internal list. However, recently they are including some offensive adverts. Can anyone recommend software that we can maintain on a local server. We use this for internal memos, notices etc.

Mailman is pretty easy to setup in OS X, works well with postfix, and is a real list server. Topica is... well, I finllay unsubbed from the last of those because of all the spewage.

http://www.postfix.org

-- ::::::=== <http://2blog.kreme.com> ===::::::

It seems that Mailman and Macjordomo are the two recommendations so far. I use Mailman to manage hundreds of lists. I've not heard of Macjordomo before, but I downloaded the software to take a look.

Macjordomo seems easy to install, and you could get some lists up and running in a few minutes. I wouldn't want to use it to manage a large installation, though.

We switched from *Majordomo* to Mailman chiefly because we couldn't find a proper web interface for Majordomo. That meant that list management had to be done manually by us, or by email commands that most people can't use.

Macjordomo makes it simple to set up and centrally manage lists. It doesn't provide a web interface, though.

Macjordomo works by fetching mail from a POP server, and sending it through an SMTP server. That means you'll need a pop account for every list that you have. You can't specify a password for the SMTP server, and it doesn't allow you to fetch mail from an IMAP server. That's a pretty tight set of restrictions. You can set a 'serving interval' of as little as one minute (the default is 10).

Mailman provides a useful web interface, which makes it easy for us to create lists that non-experts can manage.

I think that if you have just a few lists, and you don't fall foul of the server requirements, then Macjordomo could do the job for you. You'll need to change the defaults, though: there's no spam protection on the lists by default.

If you want to be able to create lists for others to manage, then it may well be worth getting to grips with Mailman. You'll need to be able to install it on your mail server, though.

I am not an expert at mailing lists, but that hasn't stopped me from operating them for over 7 years...LetterRip is what has made this not only possible, but easy for me.

I've been using LetterRip since before its public release and operate about half a dozen no frills lists. The largest of these has about 230 subscribers and generates 2 or 3 digests daily. Until recently this all happened on an SE/30 until this faithful workhorse blew its motherboard.

The server is now a 400 Mhz. iMac and LetterRip 3.0.7 is running in Classic. I have a reproducible problem with spurious digests when it restarts and am planning to install the OS X version soon.

Have you considered PHPList?

http://www.phplist.com/

I installed it on a hosted website and it works well. Though, I must say, the tech support is poor.

- nello

At 04:49 -0800 12/14/04, Ian Eiloart opined:
>Macjordomo makes it simple to set up and centrally manage lists. It doesn't provide a web interface, though.

It is relatively easy to create a web interface for Macjordomo that manipulates Macjordomo using its mail-based interface.

>Macjordomo works by fetching mail from a POP server, and sending it through an SMTP server. That means you'll need a pop account for every list that you have.

Correct, but it also means you *don't* have to be able to run your own MTA, so Macjordomo can be run from a dial-up or dynamic IP account.

>You can't specify a password for the SMTP server

There is a small addition, Baton Mail, that lets you use authenticated SMTP.

http://www.mythtech.net/baton.html

>You can set a 'serving interval' of as little as one minute (the default is 10).

If you're running Macjordomo on the same box as your POP server, in many cases you can make the serving interval effectively zero.

>I think that if you have just a few lists, and you don't fall foul of the server requirements, then Macjordomo could do the job for you.

It certainly has limitations, but one of its great strengths is the active support by its author and other aficionados on the Macjordomo mailing list.

--Ron
--
Ron Risley
www.risley.net

We use several different listservs, depending on the needs of the client. My personal experience is with LetterRip, Macjordomo, Majordomo, Mailman, and Dada Mail, with several php scripts included as parts of various CMS tools.

If your needs are to keep things relatively simple, well supported, and web-based, I'd recommend Dada Mail as a very portable and easy to manage solution. <http://mojo.skazat.com/> It's easy on server resources and has an active, responsive developer and is a pleasure to set up and use on various platforms.

Mailman, is my preference if you are needing a web-administrated, and full featured mail list for many kinds of uses, including two-way discussions but don't want to bother with a forum.

You could also consider some future scability features with something that might seem like overkill: Web Crossing. But they have good support and it's relatively simple to use only the features you need.