[UPHPU] dropping Mailman for Google Groups

[Wade Preston Shearer]

All,

I am toying with the idea of dropping Mailman for Google Groups and  
would like some feedback from the group. Mailman is a nice, old  
friend that has giving years of dedicated service to the community,  
but his age is showing. Sure, once you get it configured and locked  
down, it will run like a champ for years on end, but installing and  
configuring Mailman is a royal pain and even adding/editing lists,  
administering services, and managing personal accounts is a pain. The  
interface is archaic and horrible from a usability standpoint.  
Mailman's features are excellent, but they aren't any good if you  
can't figure out how to use them or it is so complicated that you  
don't want to bother. Plus the archives aren't searchable. Plus the  
archives display your email address un-obsficated.

While I have considered alternate solutions off an on in the past,  
the upcoming project of rebuilding the server has be considering it  
very seriously now. Another motivation is the desire for a more  
robust and flexible solution that better meets the needs of all  
users. I have longed for some time for a solution that married a  
forum and a mailing list into one, so that the forum people would be  
happy and the email people would be happy… with posts coming from  
both email and web-based interface and being one and the same…  
perfectly synchronized and users only interacting through the medium  
they desire and receiving notifications in the manner they desire.

Well, there is a solution that does just this: Google Groups. And,  
it's free. And it has a very slick, user-friendly interface. And it's  
archives are searchable. And it obsficates your email address. You  
can even receive the post via RSS if you are so inclined. I am still  
checking to see if I can import our old archives, but assuming that  
that and everyone having to have a Good Account are the only  
downsides, what does everyone think? I think that I'm ready to make  
the switch. We would still post to uphpu at uphpu.org, the mail would  
just be delivered from uphpu at googlegroupus.com instead. It does  
digest mode and everything.

What do you think?


wade
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