[nos-bbs] Welcome to the New NOS-BBS Mailing List!

[John Ackermann N8UR]

Barry, VE3JF, has asked TAPR to take over operation of the nos-bbs at hydra.carleton.ca mailing list.  Bill, WA7NWP (wa7nwp at tapr.org), will be the new list owner.

A few minutes ago you received an email welcoming you to nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org, and including your password to manage your subscription to the new list.

Here's some more detail on how the new list will work.

73,
John N8UR
jra at febo.com
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Please read this message carefully, as it has important details about the new system.

GENERAL NOTES

First, some good news.  All mail going to the TAPR mailing lists now runs through the "SpamAssassin" spam filter and the "ClamAV" virus scanner.  These filters, coupled with the fact that the lists accept postings only from members, should reduce the number of spams, worms, virii, and other bad things that get through, though you'd better remember that no filter is perfect.  If you do receive spam or a worm that appears to come from a TAPR list, the best thing to do is take a deep breath and delete it -- no system is perfect, and there will be some misses.  Also, much spam and virtually all worms and virii have forged information and probably are lying when they say they came via this system, despite what the "From: " line says.  Finally, the mailing list archives do obscure email addresses to make the spam harvester's job a little harder.

USING THE LISTS

This list uses the Mailman mailing list system.  It should act pretty much like most other mailing list.  The list address is nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org.

Though there are loud opinions on either side of the issue, we've elected to set all the general TAPR lists to "reply-to-list" mode (for most lists, this isn't a change from past practice).  Please don't complain about this; we know the arguments on both sides, and have lived through the flame-wars to reach this decision.  TAPR is a community, and we want to encourage public discussion, not one-way broadcasts.

As before, as a spam-prevention measure the lists are set to accept postings only from members.  That means that if you subscribe using an alias address like n0call at arrl.net, you won't be able to post unless your mail program is set to show that address in either the "From: " or the "Reply-to: " header.  If you need to post from a second address, you can subscribe that address, and set it to "nomail" mode so that you won't receive a second copy of the message.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Unfortunately, the list data we were able to import from Lyris isn't perfect, and there is some subscriber information that did not transfer over.

The transferred data includes the email address of all users who have selected to either receive messages individually as they are sent, or in a daily digest, but not other fields.

NOTE:  Addresses listed as "index" or "no mail" (e.g., a second address that you post from, but don't want mail sent to) are NOT being carried over.  The new system supports these options, but you will need to resubscribe those addresses and set them appropriately.

Your real name and password information did not transfer over.  If you received a welcome message on Saturday, that message contains your new password.  Otherwise, see below for info on how to get your password.

MANAGING YOUR LIST SETTINGS

Mailman operates primarily via a web interface, though you can also make changes via email to "mailman at lists.tapr.org".

NOTE:  All access to the web interface is via secure HTTP (HTTPS) and you need to include the "https://" at the beginning of the URL.  Because we are still making the system transition, your browser will probably warn you that the certificate isn't verified or that it doesn't match the server name.  If you trust us, you can click "Accept" and then you'll get into the site.  When the full tapr.org web site is moved over (in a few weeks), the certificate will match and these warnings should go away.

IMPORTANT:  As noted above, passwords did not transfer over from Lyris.  You can go to https://lists.tapr.org/mailman/options/<LISTNAME>/<YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS> and click the button for "Password Reminder".  Your password will be emailed to you.

https://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo will show all public mailing lists, and provides links to go to those lists to subscribe, manage your existing subscription, or view the archives.

To access private mailing lists, you'll need to add the listname at the end of that URL: https://lists.tapr.org/mailmain/listinfo/<PRIVATE_LISTNAME>.

If you want to go directly to your options for a given list, use https://lists.tapr.org/mailman/options/<LISTNAME>/<YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS>

By the way, once you are at the options page, you can click a button that will show you (and provide links to) all the other lists to which you are subscribed.

CONCLUSION

Although the conversion hasn't been painless (Lee, N5LYT, and I spent more time than you want to hear about dealing with all the integration issues), the system seems to be stable and ready to go.  However, there are sure to be some bugs we've not yet squashed.  Please bear with us as we continue to tune things.

The new machine is much faster than the old, and the Mailman software should be much better than Lyris, but we are still learning our way around with it.  Your patience will be appreciated.

Thanks for your support,

73,

John N8UR
President, TAPR
jra at febo.com -- n8ur at tapr.org