Well, we are still in the testing phase, but thanks to UCI Postmaster Con Wieland, we may finally be up and running. After delving into the innards of Mailman and scouring the web, we tracked down some of the problems, one of which was a permissions issue (of course!).
Mail list testing can now resume, although previous test accounts had to be deleted since they had been made while the creation process was dumping before finishing everything. Now, when a new list is created, the entire process is being completed without error and a welcome message is sent to the new owner with an auto-generated password.
Currently, list names are the same as a group's username followed by "-list". This helps us keep track of who a list's owner is and reduces/elminates the possibility that we have a conflict between account usernames and list usernames.
After some evaluation time, we may allow groups to have more than one list, such as
username-members@spirit.dos.uci.edu or
username-alumni@spirit.dos.uci.edu. We'll have to see what impact these mail lists will have on server performance, storage, and administration/support time (the Spirit Server program relies on volunteers from clubs and organizations, so more volunteers = more service, so tell your members to join us!).
Fall 2004 will probably be the official start date of this new service, but we are still seeking pilot testers, so if your group would like to get a headstart and preview the mail list service, please send a message to spirit at uci.edu ("at = @" in this spambot infested world).
--ST
