Re: [PLUG] Replacement mailing list idea

[Christopher Barry <christopher.r.barry@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 12:45:49 -0400
Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org> wrote:

>I sent a couple of comments off-list, so let me send this one on-list.
>
>On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 10:50:57AM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote:
>> I'd suggest that this be done using a donated service, or by somebody
>> who has significant experience in such things.  I know enough about
>> mailing lists and spam filters and such to know that I wouldn't want
>> to treat this task lightly.  It isn't rocket science, but we would
>> want competence and stability.  
>
>I'd be happy to host it here (well, firemountain.net, actually).  I'm
>semi-local (Maryland) after moving from the Philadelphia area, and have
>been hosting the NoVaLug (Northern Virginia LUG) mailing list for
>several years, along with a dozen others that have been around much
>longer.
>
>I'm running the latest Mailman 2.X version (2.1.23) on a stable stack
>of sendmail/OpenBSD.  I've done list migrations before (from majordomo
>1, majordomo 2, listerv, and Yahoo), so I know how to massage the
>archives in order to preserve data.  And with 30+ years of mailing
>list and mail system experience, including some very large operations,
>I think I can handle this.
>
>Everything is configured-controlled and backed up daily in order to
>minimize the possibility of dataloss events and to allow me to back
>out changes if they don't turn out well.  Downtime is minimal: last
>outage was 3+ months ago when the datacenter hit a perfect storm of
>extremely high temperatures, a UPS that did, a generator that did,
>and a cutover relay that didn't.  Before that: over a year.
>
>I'm evaluating Mailman 3.X.  No timetable yet: I'm still kicking the
>tires and getting used to it.
>
>This migration would actually be pretty simple:
>
>	- clone the list's configuration file from the current one
>	- update for 2.1.23 including DMARC mitigation (ugh)
>	- set new list to temporary moderation
>	- import the current list's "mbox" and rebuild archives
>	- grab the current list roster, check against anti-spam
>		controls, then invite everyone to the new list [1]
>	- pick a cutover date, on that date turn off the old list,
>		turn off the temp moderation flag on the new one
>	- import the delta between old list's mbox (now) and
>		when last imported (then), add to archives
>	- at this point, the new list is running and has a complete
>		archive of the old list, plus its own ongoing one
>
>	[1] Well worth doing. Copious past experience indicates
>	that this is not only a good way of pruning addresses
>	that have been abandoned (but are still accepting mail)
>	but it's also a good way of spotting any false positives
>	in the anti-spam system and quashing them before the new
>	list goes live.
>
>---rsk
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
>Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --
>http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements -
>http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General
>Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug


I had offered to host it on my rackspace box, but this is way better.

I think this suggestion by Rich is hands down the best solution
available. We get free hosting in a stable environment, backed up
daily, and nurtured by a caring veteran mail system expert on a rock
solid obsd box - what else could anyone want!! Oh, and it's not google,
yahoo, discuss or some other faceless corporation.


-- 
Regards,
Christopher
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug