Thanks Rolf, that is very helpful. This is the behaviour I expected to see, and think I did initially. I will check on the settings you suggest!
Thanks again for your time
Ormo
Hi! I have scoured the forum and can't find anything about this. Hopefully it is a simple setting I have missed, or a small misconfiguration!
My issue is about error returns. When a non-subscriber sends a mail to the list, the error saying he/she is not subscribed is only sent to the postmaster (redirected again to me) as the "copy errors to postmaster" is set. But it doesn't get sent back to the original sender. This is a problem as users who have several email addresses use one to subscribe, but often don't think about which address they are using and send emails to the list from other accounts. I get these errors and have to go tell them to send it again with the proper address. I would love for this error to go to them directly (with a copy to me as postmaster as well if possible!). When an error (SMTP delivery error, autoresponse etc) goes to the mailing list itself I am redirecting it to an external address (postmaster,ie me) using the conventional error handling option in the list. This is fine and doesn't seem like it should affect the above issue (indeed changing this setting doesn't change the above behaviour).
My other error question is similar, but is about maiser errors. The lists have several moderators each and should only be modifiable by those moderators, so we have public subscription disabled and are using the moderator mail command system to maintain the list (they are closed lists). However when another moderator fluffs the commands with a misspelling or wrong list-name or similar, the errors only come to the postmaster (me) and don't go to the moderator who fluffed them and could do with the feedback to get them right on their next try.
I changed the name of maiser to list-admin make some errors nicer (from all I can find to read in docs and peoples comments it seems like it should be fine).
I am running Mercury only as a mailing list server for a regional arm of an international non-profit organisation. So I haven't set up any of the mail server aspects, only running SMTP relay, POP fetcher and Mailing lists. I think the HTTP is running from previous experiments with that, but not being used. As it is not a mailserver it does not have a domain set (we have a domain, but our email is served elsewhere, so using it would confuse the situation for email addresses using that domain as they need to be SMTP'd out to the external mail system), and the only local user is Admin (from set up) and the pseudo-users of the mailing lists.
If needed I can post some configuration data, but maybe there is something obvious to check or change that I am missing? Or maybe I have missed a fundamental operational requirement of Mercury as a mailing-list/mail server?!
Any help much appreciated!
[quote user="Ormo"]
Hi! I have scoured the forum and can't find anything about this. Hopefully it is a simple setting I have missed, or a small misconfiguration!
My issue is about error returns. When a non-subscriber sends a mail to the list, the error saying he/she is not subscribed is only sent to the postmaster (redirected again to me) as the "copy errors to postmaster" is set. But it doesn't get sent back to the original sender.[/quote]
At least at first blush, this strikes me as one of those, "That's not a bug, it's a FEATURE!" situations. Consider that, if Merc acted in the way (you think) you desire, it would very likely constitute a gilt-edged engraved invitation to spammers to abuse it for relaying their crud via "misdirected" (yeah, riiiiight) DSNs.
[quote]This is a problem as users who have several email addresses use one to subscribe, but often don't think about which address they are using and send emails to the list from other accounts.[/quote]
Really? That happens often enough to be a real problem? That surprises me -- not least because with at least most mail clients that I am aware of, the various client accounts or "personalities" are generally kept pretty well-segregated (different "folders", different "stationerys", possibly even different address books). Hence, a user with multiple e-mail accounts would only receive mail from your mailing list "in" the correct account/personality/whatever. Therefore, replying to that mail via a different account would at the least require several deliberate extra steps (the specifics of which would depend on the particular client, but still). Similarly, I would think that the urge to create new messages to the list from a different account would also be minimized, if perhaps not completely eliminated.
[quote]I get these errors and have to go tell them to send it again with the proper address. I would love for this error to go to them directly (with a copy to me as postmaster as well if possible!).[/quote]
I can appreciate the sentiment, but... As mentioned above, doing this automagically could (and probably would) create a MUCH larger and more serious problem.
[quote]My other error question is similar, but is about maiser errors. The lists have several moderators each and should only be modifiable by those moderators, so we have public subscription disabled and are using the moderator mail command system to maintain the list (they are closed lists). However when another moderator fluffs the commands with a misspelling or wrong list-name or similar, the errors only come to the postmaster (me) and don't go to the moderator who fluffed them and could do with the feedback to get them right on their next try.[/quote]
Maybe I'm missing something here; but again, I really don't see this as a real problem. If your "moderators" are so fumble-fingered as to chronically fsck-up the addresses they're sending to, THAT is the fundamental problem which needs to be corrected. Further, if the lists are indeed "closed" to all but the moderators (i.e., all new messages must be explicitly approved by a moderator before being posted to the list), then I think you have still less of a problem than your first paragraph implied. At this point, since only the moderators themselves can actually post to the list, your issue with misdirected incoming posts from the world at large is effectively nonexistant.
[quote]I am running Mercury only as a mailing list server for a regional arm of an international non-profit organisation. So I haven't set up any of the mail server aspects, only running SMTP relay, POP fetcher and Mailing lists. I think the HTTP is running from previous experiments with that, but not being used. As it is not a mailserver it does not have a domain set (we have a domain, but our email is served elsewhere, so using it would confuse the situation for email addresses using that domain as they need to be SMTP'd out to the external mail system), and the only local user is Admin (from set up) and the pseudo-users of the mailing lists.[/quote]
Your phrasing here may be well confusing me; but at least as I think I understand it, you assumptions about "it is not a mailserver" and not needing a domain name are questionable, at best. When Mercury sends mail to the various list members (at least some of whom are presumably off-site), even if via the MercuryC module, it NEEDS to be "From:" something; specifically, it needs to be "From:" a recognizable (and in many cases, verifiable) mail host at a recognizable (and in many cases, verifiable) domain. Elsewise, that traffic will likely be rejected by a fairly large (and ever-growing) number of mail operators who insist on doing things like checking for valid/matching rDNS on EHLO greetings, and so on.
[quote]If needed I can post some configuration data, but maybe there is something obvious to check or change that I am missing? Or maybe I have missed a fundamental operational requirement of Mercury as a mailing-list/mail server?![/quote]
Again, I may be completely misunderstanding your situation and request; but it seems to me that it's not really a matter of a misconfiguration or similar. Nor do I think it is specific to Mercury. The issues discussed above would apply more-or-less equally to any list-server software you might chose to run.
If a mailing list is set to receive messages from subscribers and moderators only a delivery failure message ("List is restricted and you are not a member.") will be sent to the sender's address if that address is not in the list. If "Send copies of all errors to the postmaster" is checked in Core configuration the postmaster account will recirve a copy of the delivery failure message.
However, if "Automatically redirect unauthorized postings to the primary moderator" is checked in list settings only the list moderator will receive the message, prefaced with this text:
The attached message has been submitted to a moderated mailing list
for which you are listed as the primary moderator.You can distribute the message to the list by opening it and forwarding
it without changes to the list address (your mail program must add a
proper "Resent-From" header to the forwarded message for this to work).
/Rolf
