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

[Hilmar Lapp]

If it hasn’t happened yet, I’d suggest not to mass-unsubscribe. Instead set everyone to moderated and then to reject posts from moderated members, with a auto-response explanation.

That will preserve, in first approximation, who was originally subscribed, in case that’s needed again in the future.

-hilmar

Sent from away

> On Jan 9, 2018, at 6:20 AM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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)