New mailing list and some issues

[Kaustav Das Modak]

Hi all,

I had requested webfaction to install mailman for
wfs-indi...@wfs-india.org. They have installed it, but the issue
is that the URL will be on the webfaction.com domain. Currently at:
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/wfs-india-discuss

I asked them whether it will be possible to make the list url a
subdomain of wfs-india.org, but they said that it can't be done.
Instead, they suggested me to create a sub-domain redirect where
something like http://discussion.wfs-india.org would redirect to the
mailing list URL.

Will this be fine? The only issue I see here is branding. If yes, we can
start with the new list if everyone agrees.

Cheers.

Kaustav

--
Kaustav Das Modak
Desinated Partner
CodeBinders Web Development Services LLP

Web: http://www.codebinders.com
Blog: http://kaustav.codebinders.com
Ph: (+91) 9874456551

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Wednesday 29 May 2013 10:32 PM, Tarashish Mishra wrote:
> GoDaddy provides masked redirection for subdomains. We can try that.
> or better yet do it by creating CNAME record.
>

Nice ideas Tarashish. However, the issues I see are:

1. Cloaking/masking is the same as creating a html page on a subdomain
of wfs-india.org and loading the original mailing list url in an iframe
there. I don't like the idea of hiding the original URL in this way, but
this is always the first and easiest way out.

2. CNAMEs will point to the webfaction mailman server itself. Say, if I
point a CNAME of discussions.wfs-india.org to
mailman-mail5.webfaction.com, accessing discussions.wfs-india.org will
give a 403 error as it gives now.

Also it depends on how the server is set. If it is a virtualhost
listening to server name, it will not respond to a different server name
through a CNAME


I'll try doing it the CNAME way. Let me see.

Cheers.

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Wednesday 29 May 2013 10:45 PM, Kaustav Das Modak wrote:
> On Wednesday 29 May 2013 10:32 PM, Tarashish Mishra wrote:
>> GoDaddy provides masked redirection for subdomains. We can try that.
>> or better yet do it by creating CNAME record.
>>

As I had thought, pointing CNAME does not work. I had pointed
lists.wfs-india.org to mailman-mail5.webfaction.com. But the mailman
host seems to be using a server name. So going to
http://lists.wfs-india.org fires up the default listener, which in this
case seems to be a redirect to squirrelmail.

I'll remove the CNAME and make it a redirect instead.

Thanks.

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Thursday 30 May 2013 11:07 AM, Kaustav Das Modak wrote:
>
> As I had thought, pointing CNAME does not work. I had pointed
> lists.wfs-india.org to mailman-mail5.webfaction.com. But the mailman
> host seems to be using a server name. So going to
> http://lists.wfs-india.org fires up the default listener, which in this
> case seems to be a redirect to squirrelmail.
>
> I'll remove the CNAME and make it a redirect instead.
>
> Thanks.
>

I have made some interesting progress on the mailing list issue. The
list is still at
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/wfs-india-discuss, but
I've been able to integrate the subscription and administration process
within Drupal :-)

What this means is, people will no longer need to go to the mailman
interface to subscribe or unsubscribe to the list. They will simply need
to create an account on the wfs-india.org website and manage their
subscriptions straight from there.

To do a test drive, signup for wfs-india.org and you will find a new tab
in the edit profile called "Mailing Lists". It will have a subscription
option. Once you have selected a subscription option there, you will be
subscribed straight to the list :-) And should receive a subscription
confirmation email on your registered email addresses.

I need people to test it and let me know if this works. If it does work,
we will not need the redirection stuff anymore. Communications with the
mailman server will be handled by Drupal behind-the-scenes. However, I
should keep an eye open for security issues, though there should not be
any Drupal never sends out passwords to the mailman server. Also, the
communication is done over HTTPS.

Admins will have a clean interface within Drupal to manage subscriptions
to the mailing list. Of course for advanced customizations admins will
need to log in to the mailman admin interface.

The facilities I see for this approach are:

1. A single account to manage all WFS-IN related data.
2. Better control on data for admins.
3. Manage all subscriptions from the comfort of the Drupal interface ;-)
4. Hide the "complexity" of a mailing list subscription from
non-technical/newbie users (and we will have quite a lot of them).

Cheeers.

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Thursday 30 May 2013 06:19 PM, Kaustav Das Modak wrote:
> I have made some interesting progress on the mailing list issue. The
> list is still at
> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/wfs-india-discuss, but
> I've been able to integrate the subscription and administration process
> within Drupal :-)
>

There seems to be a pretty serious issue with the Webfaction Mailman
servers. Looks like their IP is marked as possible spam source by Yahoo.
The emails I tried to send the list from my Yahoo account resulted in
Failure Notice in this message:

<wfs-indi...@wfs-india.org>:
Remote host said: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host
[106.10.151.114] blocked using bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see
http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?106.10.151.114 [RCPT_TO]

This is probably because webfaction hosts a lot of other email lists on
the same server, from the same mailman instance. I have written to them
about these issues, but they will be hard to address in a shared
environment.

The Drupal to mailman interface works smoothly otherwise.

I am considering moving the mailing list to a separate server, if
possible, but once again the funds are a big issue. If anyone can assist
me financially, we can get a DigitalOcean VPS, which seems to be the
cheapest in the market and host both the website and the list there.

Thanks.

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Thursday 30 May 2013 09:16 PM, Kaustav Das Modak wrote:
>
> I am considering moving the mailing list to a separate server, if
> possible, but once again the funds are a big issue. If anyone can assist
> me financially, we can get a DigitalOcean VPS, which seems to be the
> cheapest in the market and host both the website and the list there.
>

Just another quick thought. Anyone here has any information on
LibreList? (http://librelist.com). That looks like an excellent place to
host the WFS-India list without investing on infrastructure. Their
process seems transparent enough. Among its current users are the Flask
project. They also have a very good looking and neat mail archive.

Since the present website is running nicely on webfaction, what if we
create a mailing list on Librelist? That way, we will have no further
expenses. Also, since a popular project like Flask uses LibreList, I
guess we can trust that platform for consistency.

If we use Librelist, I'll remove the mailing list integration from
Drupal. Instead we will put up a static page explaning how to join the
list on Librelist. Additionally, we can create a form which will take
users' email address and post a subscribe email to the list.

Any thoughts?

[Satabdi Das]

>
> Just another quick thought. Anyone here has any information on LibreList? (http://librelist.com). That looks like an excellent place to host the WFS-India list without investing on infrastructure. Their process seems transparent enough. Among its current users are the Flask project. They also have a very good looking and neat mail archive.
>

librelist is cool. what say others?

[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Friday 31 May 2013 09:59 AM, Satabdi Das wrote:
>
>
> librelist is cool. what say others?
>

Tarashish has already managed a list from openhatch. That should be more
sustainable for us. What do you think?

[Satabdi Das]

Yes, I noticed his email after I sent the above mail. The openhatch solution is good too.

Satabdi

--
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[Kaustav Das Modak]

On Friday 31 May 2013 02:39 PM, Satabdi Das wrote:
> Yes, I noticed his email after I sent the above mail. The openhatch
> solution is good too.
>
> Satabdi
>

Cool, shall I finalise openhatch, then?

[Satabdi Das]

Yes.

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