[plug] Mailing List Confusion (was: Pi$$ed off)

[James Bromberger]

On 15/12/2011 8:51 AM, clare johnstone wrote:
> It was a bit confusing; Perhaps the error should refer to a
> "non-subscriber to the list" rather than "non-member".
Indeed, this is the issue.

This is /Mailman/'s default wording and has nothing to do with
membership of the association. PLUG's mailing lists are generally open
for anyone to subscribe to and un-subscribe from at will. As many will
be aware, the /Mailman /software PLUG uses is a self-service
subscribe/un-subscribe, which can be accessed via email, or on the web
at http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/. Further details on PLUG's
mailing lists are at http://www.plug.org.au/resources/mailing-list.

In this case Arie was subscribed to the mailing list in question from an
old email address and posted to this list from a separate email address,
which added to the confusion. /Mailman /cannot associate two separate
email addresses as being the same person, so identifies the new address
as a non-subscriber (/non-member of the *list*/). I have explained and
offered (/off list/) to update the mailing list subscription details for
him if he is unable to do so through the self-service interfaces
offered, and I await Arie's acceptance of my offer (I don't generally
believe we should change someone's subscriptions without their consent).



*Details for the interested*
While the template reply is customisable, it has a variable for the
"reason" a message was held, and that appears this is not easily
customisable (the template is used for many bounce options). It is this
"reason" field that has caused the confusion:

    /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/Hold.py:    reason = _('Post by
    non-member to a members-only list')

... and I suspect that if we were to change this reason text it would
either break some of mailman's internationalization lookups (not that we
need them, so this is minor). It uses PO files, which use the original
English text string as a key to lookup translations, such as this French
translation from the fr/LC_MESSAGES/mailman.po file:

    #: Mailman/Handlers/Hold.py:61
    msgid "Post by non-member to a members-only list"
    msgstr "Envoi par un non-abonn<E9> sur une liste reserv<E9>e aux
    abonn<E9>s"


There is no en/LC_MESSAGES/mailman.po to translate the English into...
English in mailman's current set up (shame, as we could possibly do with
an /en_AU/ locale).

However, the next security update or package upgrade would overwrite
this change, as this message is not designed to be customised (clearly
doing so could invalidate the lookup of translations).


  James
-- 
/Mobile:/ +61 422 166 708, /Email:/ james_AT_rcpt.to
PLUG President 2011: http://www.plug.org.au <http//www.plug.org.au>
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