mailing list software

[rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray)]

   If you really want to block posters and trap unsubscribe messages,
cypherpunks is welcome to use the extropian's list software (by the
end of next week it should be complete enough for someone else to run
it without my help) Here's what it can do:

Major:

o modular design
o mail delivered by custom "user agents" which can filter a user's mail
  at the distribution site (``remote kill file'')
o remote system administraion (optional)
o password authentication (optional)
o accounting system for commercial "pay for use" subscription mode (optional)
o caches messages (user definable) so users who filter a thread can
  retrieve it later
o internalized cron for running time dependent activities
  (right now, the utilities that come with it generate weekly
   list statistics (with pretty ascii graphs), back up user list,
   move and compress logs, send digests, filterlists, and more)
o incoming filter interface for doing useful things like 
  decrypting signed messages or remapping anonymous id's into real
  e-mail addresses (``cryptofilt'' is a utility I wrote to try this out,
    although it needs lots of work)
o user controllable digestification - users can turn digest mode on or off
  and alter the size of their digests
o nightly filter list - when messages are filtered out by your filtering
  agent, you still get a list of who and what was filtered incase something
  was killed that you wanted to receive. You can then request to have it
  resent
o anti-spamming routines
  * small messages can be configured to be trapped (such as 1 liner 
	``unsubscribes'' which are then forwarded to the list administrator)
  * large messages are truncated and stored for later retrieval for those
      who request them (configurable, I have it set to 50k right now)
  * blacklist - a regexp can be applied to incoming headers to prevent
                certain addresses getting through
  * ``members only mode'' - the list software rejects posts from those
     who are not subscribed
o duplicate messages trapped - the list software keeps a recent database
  of message-ids and their header info
o thread tracking via subject and ``in-reply-to:''
o built in help system
o automatic sending of welcome/goodbye messages for subscribe/unsubscribe
o automated billing (part of the accounting system)
o complete logging of almost every list transaction (optional)
o cpu cost logging (in case the list is run from a commercial service
   like the extropians where we have to pay to run the list)
o distributed distribution - if your machine can't handle the mail bandwidth,
    the list software packs up the message and the list of users it is
    addressed to and sends it off to another machine for delivery

The delivery agent which comes with the software supports the following:

exclude messages by user
exclude messages by thread
include messages by user
include messages by thread

  Several people on Extropians leave their agent settings in ``exclude all''
mode. They then view the list of filtered messages and include the
threads which interest them. ``exclude user detweiler|sboxx'' would prevent
Detweiler's posts from reaching you for example. (assuming he wasn't
blacklist or he wasn't a subscriber and the list software was in 
members only mode)

Other agent commands:

private - automatically deliver response to a list of users privately and
set ``reply-to'' to point to you
resend - grab ranges of messages or messages by thread from the message cache
         sorts them into a digest and sends them to you
search - performs an agrep on the cache and sends you a list of messages
         that match


The disadvantages of running it:

o command syntax learning curve for new users
o documentation sucks (virtually nonexistent)
o code needs to be cleaned up a lot. I learned perl at the same
  time I wrote it. Fortunately, perl is easy to learn and the greatest
  language in the universe.
o cpu hog (5-8 seconds to process a message, only a problem if your list
    is high volume like extropian's which averages 50 messages per day)
    (extropians runs multiple agents so our cpu is much higher)
o complicated to set up (but easy to administrate)
o a little bugged, because I keep extending it
  however in the two weeks (before classes start) I have been doing nothing
  but bug killing

Requirements
o perl
o a good dbm library (normal dbm is a little tight, so users won't be
  able to store that many exclude settings. about 10-15 is the max)
  I personally recommend the berkeley db/hashing package. I recompiled
    perl with it and the code is faster and the disk space used is a lot
    less
o about 4 megs disk space
  * 1 meg for the message cache
  * 1 meg for the code
  * 1 meg for the recompiled perl with better libdbm
  * 1 meg to hold the logs (although you can disable this)
  you can get away with 2 megs of space or less
 
o patience

 
  I would consider leasing it (free) to cypherpunks. Other people will have to
wait to get it. The reason is because I am not yet done developing it,
documenting it, and I don't own it. (I developed it on a contract with
Extropy Institute and they own it.) Cypherpunks has already been given
permission to use it if they want (and I wish they would, or atleast
run a digest list so I can resubscribe)

-Ray


-- Ray Cromwell        |    Engineering is the implementation of science;    --
-- rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu  |       politics is the implementation of faith.      --