Rant: Mailing lists
Free software mailing lists suck. Especially Apache’s.
- Many of them have a CRAP Web interface or worse:
- Posting limited to subscribers
For weeks I have been struggling with Apache mailing lists (apache-users and spamassassin) and now recently with mutt lists.
I know with Apache lists you can use a special syntax:
You can start a subscription for an alternate address, for example "john@host.domain", just add a hyphen and your address (with '=' instead of '@') after the command word: <users-subscribe-john=host.domain@httpd.apache.org>
But when I do it via mutt or a `echo test | mail users-unsubscribe-hendry=dabase.com@httpd.apache.org`. I get no response from the automated mailing list manager. :(
So, If I ever get subscribed it’s generally thanks to the mailing list owner.
Then after lurking a bit, I try post. That never works as the return paths don’t match the email I am subscribed with. Return paths change all the time depending on which machine I sent it from. It could be anything from:
- hendry@pico.dreamhost.com (from my shell)
- hendry@laptop.dabase.com (from my laptop)
- hendry@soltecsoftware.com.au (from work)
And the first two aren’t working email addresses!
If you must filter, can’t you filter on my From OR Reply-To email address FFS: hendry@iki.fi
All I suggest is for Apache to start using something usable like Google Groups for user support.
Does anyone else feel my frustration?