[Techtalk] mailman topics

[Terri]

Quoting Conor Daly <conor.daly-linuxchix at cod.homelinux.org>:
> Just a quick one for the mailman admin types.  Is there an easy way in
> mailman to assign messages from unsubscribed senders to a particular topic
> in a mailing list?
>
> We have a list that is open to non-subscribers but we want to flag such
> messages so that those users who wish may opt no to receive messages from
> non-subscribers.  It seems obvious that the use of mailman topics would
> fit the requirement if it was easy to assign a topic to such messages.

I don't *think* there's an easy way built in right now, but it  
probably wouldn't be hard to build one in.

Mailman assigns messages to topics based on a scan of the "top" of the  
message.  (I forget exactly, but I believe it's the headers + the  
first few lines.  It may be only specific headers.) All you need to do  
is make it so that non-subscribers have something common in the top of  
their message, and put that into your topic regex.

However, I'm fairly certain that once a message is sent to  
subscribers, there's nothing in the message that indicates that it was  
from a non-subscriber.  Again, I could be wrong, I don't usually delve  
into this part of mailman... but even if I'm right, it should be  
possible to insert a "Topic: unsubscribed" header in when appropriate.  
  Mailman's already rewriting some headers, so it should have all the  
necessary bits and pieces around, and we know it can figure out who's  
not subscribed.

  Terri