Re: Postgres forums ... take 2 - Mailing list pgsql-general

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 11:08, Elliot Chance <elliotchance@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 15/11/2010, at 8:37 PM, Thom Brown wrote:
>> I know this is a sensitive issue with some people, i've made sure no
>> information is posted thats not already currently being indexed by google.
>>
>> The only maintenance I can see is that all new topics are pushed into the
>> General > Other category as the script can't differentiate what category it
>> should in fact belong to, once the topic is moved it will stay there. This
>> shouldn't be a real problem as theres not many new topics being created on
>> any given day.
>
> Elliot,
>
> That's actually some good work you've done there!  I didn't know phpBB
> supported bidirectional mailing list support.
>
> It doesn't. I have a subscription address that is piped into a PHP script
> that uses the phpBB3 APIs to do all you see.

That sounds scary :-) Particularly given attachments and such. but if
it works....


> A few points though.  I think we'd need to disable smileys, bbcode, any form
> of rich text formatting, flash or embedded images.  In short, plain text
> only, which is the policy on the mailing list.  I think it would be more
> useful if each forum directly corresponded to a mailing list too.  What I
> mean is that if there was a forum on the site which didn't match to a
> mailing list, only forum users could use it.
>
> If someone were to send a reply on the forum all the bbcode would be
> stripped before emailing it to the mailing list to keep the mailing list
> "pure." Is that what you mean?

Personally, my thoughts are that if we want lists mirrored to a forum,
they should look the same in both cases. Which means they should be
stripped in the forums *as well*. but since I wouldn't be using the
forums, my view should perhaps not be paid attention to around that.
But there should *definitely* not be any bbcode going to the
mailinglists.


> Also, if someone registers on the forum, do they get a major domo
> registration email?  And if so, would this be set to receive no emails upon
> registration?  I'm not clear as to how this step would work because, at the
> moment, mailing list subscribers have to subscribe on a list-by-list basis.
> So registration to the forum site wouldn't necessarily mean they'd want to
> join any particular mailing list.  Similarly, could they unregister easily?
> And anyone who attempts to post to a mailing list they aren't subscribed to
> requires moderation, so we don't wish to exacerbate this.
>
> No they are not registered on the mailing list, but they actually don't need
> to be, let me explain:
> 1. John Smith has a postgres related question and finds the forums, he signs
> up and posts his question.
> 2. His post is then emailed to the mailing list under a generic registered
> address like "mailinglist@postgresql.com.au"

This part I really don't like. It should at least be posted with some
kind of uniquely identifiable pass-through address, if not the users
own address (make that an option?). Like
magnus-hagander-net@forums.whatever


> 3. Bob House reads Johns question on the mailing list and simply sends an
> email reply.
> 4. The email reply is piped into the forum and matches the topic based on
> the email subject (thats how it currently does it.)

You really should be matching on the response headers rather than
subject... Or at least both.



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 Magnus Hagander
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