ezmlm - how to keep msgs moderated except from moderator(s)

[artemis]

Hi Community -

Is there a way to have ezmlm recognize that a message to be posted to a discussion group is from a moderator and thus not require that the message be moderated anyhow?

I've tried to answer this myself without success - have read through the info that I can find on ezmlm - fortunately for my addled brain there was a fairly recent upgrade so I didn't have to go back too far -

The situation is that I've set up a moderated subscription and moderated message discussion group using the CNC - so far I'm the only one in it (with a couple email addresses) fortunately - it works fine except that the documentation wasn't kidding when it said "all" messages would require confirmation -- even those from a moderator, so a moderator gets to moderate their own messages? -- I understand this maybe is in case someone forged the moderator's address, but in practice, it's pretty awkward, especially since the original plan was to have several moderators --

the purpose of the group is to allow some ladies to coordinate attendance in a walk and/or talk group, there are a couple regulars, MDs who would are busy and would prefer to know if no one is going to show up, which sometimes happens when the sun in out in Puget Sound and I'm trying to make their lives a little easier

so I was hoping to make the 4 or so core members of the group moderators so they could send messages quickly and between all of us, we could respond quickly when any of the occasional members also responded - but if every single moderator's message has to be approved also, and thus gets cc's to the core, ieeee --

if ezmlm won't do it, is there another program I could use - either free or inexpensive - which is easy for a nonprogrammer for practical purposes to install and configure? I did earn a living designing/writing code for a while but that was almost 20 years ago now, so I'm not sure if that is worth anything even if it was considered well structured at the time. I do have an interest in cgi and php and all other scripts but haven't had time to learn to do more than copy some javascript

thanks in advance for any help - Diane

[Bob]

Hello Diane,

I understand this maybe is in case someone forged the moderator's address

That is absolutely correct and was one of the real weaknesses of the original ezmlm which ezmlm-idx corrected. As anyone could send an email to an Announcement list and as long as it listed the correct From: address the list would send the mailing.

This resulted in some lists being compromised by virus and spam mailings.

There is no work around for an Announcement list using ezmlm but you do have additional options when using a Discussion list and you may want to see if that would work for your needs...

-Bob

[artemis]

Hi Bob - thanks - the last thing I want to do is enable spam

I do have the ezmlm group set up as a discussion list, at least I think so

all members can post messages - so that is a discussion group vs announcement - yes? I'm sorry if I'm dense

both members and messages are moderated, and it uses all the opt-in and opt-out features available except I don't require confirmation for opting out - I'd rather have that be a one-step process and take the chance that someone gets maliciously dropped (it's remote)

the way it stands right now I am the only moderator so if someone emails the group and says "is anyone walking this week" (before they drive 45 min to get here), I have to approve the message before it goes to the group

and if I send any messages I have to also approve them before they go out

so if I make the leaders of the group moderators, they would have a two step process also plus every one of us would get two copies of all the other people's messages?

I was trying to keep this within the domain but now I'm wondering

would I be better off going to one of the sites like Yahoo and setting up one of their free groups?

thanks again for any feedback - Diane

[Bob]

Hi again Diane,

Discussion groups have the following moderation options:

• Anyone may post, moderated
• Subscribers moderated, Others rejected
• Subscribers only may post, unmoderated
• Subscribers unmoderated, Others moderated

So I believe that if you used "Subscribers only may post, unmoderated" you would have what you are looking for?

Just access your CNC Mailing List Manager, click on the list name in question and then click on "Edit listname properties" and you can change to a discussion list if it is currently an Announcement only list and also select the moderation properties.

-Bob