Mailing List management questions (probably RTFM, but hey...)

[jbsegal]

So...is there a mailing list manager that can receive an attached file, HOLD the attachment in an archive and send only a message saying "A new attached file is available in the archive"?

As well, is there a good way for putting a different-every-time message at the start of a digest - one that'll be manually compiled and probably be the last message to be written, just before the digest goes out?

Thanks!

Comments

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is on-topic or not but... IMHO there is just no valid reason for anyone to ever send an attachment to suspects or elbows. Plain text encodes language, which is so amazingly... communicative. Yes it might take 1,000 words to equal a picture, but those 1,000 words still take less bandwidth than the picture and require no extra steps to look at in Pine or emacs or other such wonderfully non-virus-spreading text-only email clients. If someone has a document of interest to lots of people, they can post "here's why you want this document... E-mail me privately to receive a copy", or find a website to post it on. Thus any attachment going to suspects or elbows deserves to be Just Flushed Down The Toilet.

Do you disagree? Can you present any counter-example against unceremoniously flushing attachments?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Did I say a word about those other lists? No, I didn't.

I'm setting up a totally different list, one that's taking over for a print publication, and I've been asked to make it possible for folks to send .DOCs, .PDFs, maybe a couple of others, so that they can continue to echo their in-print formatting.

I think plain-text is a Really Good Idea, too. But I'm doing this as a service for a different community, so I'm trying to do what they want.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Ah-hah, well that's OK then. Yes these other
lists do have entirely different needs, I agree.
Just checking. :)

[mneme]

Mailman will let you set a long digest time (annual, say), and then manually create digests as you go, setting the digest header/footer as you create them.

It won't do what you want with attachments out of the box, AFAIK, though it will detect attachements and hold them or forward them to the list-owner, who can then do what he or she wants with them.