I want better email SW. Can Evolution/Majordomo deliver?

[Amedee @ Ubuntu]

OHAI it's you again...

On Wed, July 15, 2009 03:36, Piper wrote:
>
> Let me rephrase the issue which brought me to this list.
>
> I want better email SW than Windows Express especially when it comes to
> the
> listserver aspect of Express Mailbox, ie

Windows Express does not exist!!
The correct name is Outlook Express.

Outlook Express CANNOT do what you want to do with it.
Evolution and Thunderbird, two common mail clients on Ubuntu, can't do it
either.

> ... a mailbox listerver which does more than allow x number of email
> addresses under a name like "ABC List".

Wrong terminology again. It is not a "listserver", it is an address book.
Your "ABC List" is an alias for a group of email addresses.
If you were using Outlook (not Outlook Express), and you add "ABC List" to
the To: field, then it will be in bold, with a + symbol next to it. Click
on the + and "ABC List" will be expanded to the individual email
addresses.

Evolution and Thunderbird also have an address book with a similar feature.

> I only need 2 additional features:
>
> (1) When the email comes in here to ABC, a "reflector expression" will
> send it back out automatically to all others on ABC.

Could be done in theory with rules (Outlook, Evolution, Thunderbird) but
the rules will only run when your mail client is active. When your mail
client is closed, the rules will not run.
Anyway I strongly recommend against it because there is a simpler
solution. See below.

> (2) When J Doe wants to sub/unsub for ABC, Doe can send a command here and
> it will be automatically processed accordingly.

Not possible with Outlook Express, Outlook, Evolution, Thunderbird.

> Am I asking for too much?

No, you are asking the wrong questions.
You have to ask questions The Smart Way.
This document explains how and why:
http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

> If Evolution cannot be modified to do this, what about Majordomo on a
> Linux machine?

If you are going to use a listserver software like Majordomo, I would
recommend Mailman. I like it better, and even Ubuntu uses it. But almost
everything that can be said about Mailman is also true for Majordomo.

* grouping several individual email addresses behind one alias: YES
* mail sent to the group alias will be "reflected" to all individual
subscribers: YES
* subscribe/unsubscribe commands: YES

Mailman (or Majordomo) is the right tool for the job.
Next question: is it suitable for you? That brings me to your next statement:

> I DO NOT WANT TO BE A PUBLIC "SERVER". I want a PRIVATE listservice as
> above. That is not the business of any ISP. It is a legitimate user
> request.

A private listservice also has to be publicly reachable, because if it
isn't, then the commands like subscribe/unsubscribe won't work.
It can still be private because *you* control the authorisation of the
subscriptions.

But it's obvious that you don't want to run mailing list software on a
computer connected to your ISP line. That is a perfectly acceptable
demand. It just means that you cannot use Mailman (or Majordomo).

You will have to find something else, for example Google Groups or Yahoo
Groups. Seems like you are already doing that with
c-students-of-bcit at yahoogroups.com
Under the hood Google Groups (and Yahoo Groups) is also running a software
that is very similar to Mailman (or Majordomo). And you can make a Google
Group private, so that only you and the subscribers have access to it. You
should take the tour to get an overview of what is possible:
http://groups-beta.google.com/googlegroups/tour3/index.html

Best of all: you don't need Windows or Linux or MacOS to work with Google
Groups.

Hope this helps.
It took me a lot of time and energy to give you a good and detailed answer.

-- 
Amedee