From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 17:57:10 +0000 (+0200) Subject: Generated. X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/54242c54f6fe801b940b9f427b8565397162e7ee?ds=sidebyside Generated. --- diff --git a/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html b/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..821f264552 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html @@ -0,0 +1,425 @@ + + + + + Petter Reinholdtsen: listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software + + + + + + +
+

+ Petter Reinholdtsen + +

+ +
+ + +
+
listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software
+
22nd October 2014
+

If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on +alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to +operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password +and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate +and various options for each email address. This take a while for +every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good +job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, +the +listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages +to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two +lists I recently took over:

+ +

+% time listadmin xiph
+fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
+fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
+
+real    0m1.709s
+user    0m0.232s
+sys     0m0.012s
+%
+

+ +

In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that +there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I +currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two +minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days +ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me +less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin +program.

+ +

If you install +the listadmin +package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini +with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:

+ +

+username@example.org
+spamlevel 23
+default discard
+discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
+
+password secret
+adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
+mailman-list@lists.example.com
+
+password hidden
+other-list@otherserver.example.org
+

+ +

There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to +learn the details.

+ +

If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where +the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a +generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment +variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:

+ +

+PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
+

+ +

If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you +can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the +initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only +lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it +quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your +email.

+ +

Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 +mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the +process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of +time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free +software.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+
+ +
Tags: debian, english.
+ + +
+ + + + + +

+ Created by Chronicle v4.6 +

+ + +