[Biopython] Merging Biopython & -dev mailing list; retiring -announce list

[Peter Cock]

OK, step two - I am about to unsubscribe everyone from biopython-dev -
after which we will just use the main biopython mailing list for
discussions:

http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biopython <- main list
http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biopython-dev <- being retired

This will leave the existing archives in place, but after this there
should be no new posts via the biopython-dev list.

That will still leave
http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biopython-announce but we
may retire that too later.

Peter

On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 1:55 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> This morning we had 723 biopython subscribers, and 335 biopython-dev
> subscribers (with considerable overlap).
>
> I have now added all the biopython-dev subscribers to the main
> biopython mailing list, which now has 896 subscribers.
>
> Assuming that all went smoothly, we will next stop accepting new mail
> to the biopython-dev mailing list.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>
> P.S.
>
> If anyone is interested, to do this I used the mailman-subscribers.py
> script to download the mailing list membership (via the
> list-administrators web-interface provided by mailman), and then used
> the web-interface mass subscription functionality (which automatically
> ignored duplicates):
>
> https://wiki.list.org/DOC/How%20do%20I%20extract%20%28export%29%20a%20list%20of%20my%20list%27s%20members%20%28subscribers%29%3F
>
> On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 3:59 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have heard no objections to the plan outlined below to merge
>> the biopython-dev and biopython mailing lists, nor comments
>> about also retiring the biopython-announce list. If you have
>> concerns, please reply to the main biopython list and CC me.
>>
>> The OBF still intends to migrate to a paid hosted mailman, but
>> in the meantime, after further reconfiguration at the start of the
>> year, the OBF mailman server seems to be running stably again.
>>
>> However, to achieve this required making an important change:
>> Any emails sent to the list from a non-subscribed address are
>> now SILENTLY DISCARDED. Sadly due to spam abuse returning
>> an automated bounce message is not longer practical.
>>
>> If you have multiple email addresses (or email address aliases),
>> and only some of them are subscribed, this may regrettably cause
>> confusion.
>>
>> Peter
>> (Here writing as both a representative for the Biopython
>> developers, and the OBF Board)
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 11:47 PM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> (For reasons which the following should explain, I have
>>> also BCC'd various people active in the Biopython community)
>>>
>>> This email may never arrive, but in case it does, the OBF is
>>> currently having difficulties with its mailman server buckling
>>> under the strain of spam filtering:
>>>
>>> https://news.open-bio.org/2017/11/12/mailing-list-outage-and-public-board-meeting-update/
>>>
>>> The OBF is considering moving a small number of active
>>> mailing lists to paid hosting, and to that end it would be
>>> expedient to merge the biopython (users and discussion)
>>> and biopython-dev (development) mailing lists, and also
>>> to shut down the biopython-announce mailing list.
>>>
>>> [We would seek to preserve the decade public long mailing
>>> list archives during such a migration.]
>>>
>>> Given most of our development discussion now happens
>>> on GitHub, I think we could happily combine the main
>>> biopython and biopython-dev lists without objection.
>>>
>>> I'm curious how many people would miss the annoucement
>>> mailing list, mainly used for release notices which also go
>>> out via Twitter and the OBF blog, see:
>>>
>>> https://twitter.com/biopython
>>>
>>> https://news.open-bio.org/category/obf-projects/biopython/
>>>
>>> Any objections, please reply to the main Biopython list
>>> and/or the biopython-dev list (and CC me in case the
>>> mailman server never passes it on).
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> Peter
>>> (Here writing as both a representative for the Biopython
>>> developers, and the OBF Board)